The library of lifting

Ross Moloney, CEO of the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA), explains the benefits of being able to find relevant information to assure best practice in lifting.

Libraries are wonderful things. Throughout history they have provided a font of knowledge to share, inform, educate and inspire. Andrew Carnegie, who led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century, called libraries “the free universities of the people.”

This has never been more true, with history’s biggest ever library existing in the form of the Internet. Surfing the web, particularly with the emergence of AI tools, allows anybody to become a thoroughly informed expert on any subject.

So vast is this repository of information, however, that it can often seem an unwieldy tool for those seeking, often with a degree of urgency, clear guidance in a precise area – such as best practice in lifting.

Search engines will list links to an array of web pages, with many no doubt being valuable sources of quality information. Some, however, may not and it requires the inquirer to ascertain the veracity of that advice before they can be sufficiently confident to follow it. Sometimes carrying out this due diligence can be a laborious task, which is not ideal if an urgent issue needs to be resolved.

When conducting lifting related tasks, advice needs to be particularly trustworthy to give the practitioner the confidence they require to carry out their work without risk of being led towards potential disaster in the form of straying from regulations, damage or an accident.

Fortunately, there is a library dedicated to lifting and it can be found on the LEEA website, leeaint.com. The LEEA Library has curated a remarkably extensive collection of documents and resources related to the lifting industry. While LEEA members have access to the full range of free-to-download documents and also receive discounts on purchased items, there is a substantial amount of information available to non-members to download for free. This includes a selection of documents, LEEA-produced videos on a range of topics, informative presentations and links to open learning such as the End User Guidance CPD (Continuous Professional Development) Course.

Crucially, the LEEA Code of Practice for the Safe Use of Lifting Equipment (COPSULE) is available to download free and there is an interactive searchable version. This is a recommended Code of Practice, providing expert guidance on safe lifting practice. LEEA’s strives to promote enhanced standards for the worldwide lifting industry. By making our Code of Practice freely available, we hope that more end users will be able to access it so that eventually best practice becomes normal practice.

Specific questions on technical advice for lifting equipment matters can be answered rapidly using the LEEA Chatbot, available on the homepage, or the downloadable LEEA Connect App.

Activities around lifting can be complex, technical and often need to take place out in the elements and or in hazardous environments. It is vital that quality assured, third-party validated, technical advice is on-hand. LEEA Connect app allows all of this information to be delivered directly to the smart phones of people working with lifting equipment on site.

Having acquired information, it is generally beneficial to share it among your associated team of lifting practitioners. Sharing information increases productivity and improves employee relations. Exchanging ideas enables people to work together successfully, increases performance and improves the quality of work produced. This should ultimately result in boosting growth in an organisation.

The more LEEA grows as an association the more it learns and the more, therefore, we can add to our ever-expanding library. I would encourage anybody involved in lifting to take a browse round the LEEA Library at leeaint.com/leea-library – you may just learn something.