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Hello Colleagues My question about Chair free Enquiry Desks provoked a lively range of responses. For your interest I have attached them below. May thanks to everyone who took the time and trouble to respond it is appreciated. Here at the University of Bedfordshire we are looking at getting rid of our "Hadrian's Wall" or Enquiry desk and not just repositioning it but also making it a "stand at" service point. Would anyone be prepared to share details (shape, supplier, staff attitude & customer response) of any chair free Customer service desks such as the ones in Newcastle Public Library and Leicester University Library? I look forward to your responses. 1) I assume you mean that the "customers" would be standing not the library staff? If you do mean the library staff then you are likely to be contravening section 11, subsection 3 of; Statutory Instrument 1992 No.3004 The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 Which says "(3) A suitable seat shall be provided for each person at work in the workplace whose work includes operations of a kind that the work (or a substantial part of it) can or must be done sitting." A standing counter doesn't sound like a good plan for disabled (or many other) staff or customers! our counter is low for our wheelchair users, and we have included some wind-up inserts for student volunteers. 2) I visited the new Newcastle City Library last year, not long after it opened and took quite a number of photgraphs. They have chairs at their customer service desks: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricaird/3878503189/in/set-72157622084965261/ The following photo is large, so bear with it. You'll see that even the 'standing' desks have higher chairs with them, but in the photo these aren't being used at that time - see the very bottom of the picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricaird/3879409518/sizes/o/in/set-72157622084965261/ For the full set, visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricaird/sets/72157622084965261/ 3) How do they ensure privacy? i.e. stop other customers viewing the computer screen? if the enquiry is related to the customer's account? 4) Sorry J I know it wasn’t directly relevant to your question, but we’re a bit particular about DP here, so it was the first thing that struck me in the larger picture where the other 2 people appeared to be queueing very closely. 5) Although funnily enough, because of ongoing back problems, I find standing at a service desk much less difficult than sitting at one for prolonged periods of time. So low desks would be exacerbating a problem that high ones alleviate, as far as I'm concerned. No idea how many people with back problems have similar issues. I suppose you can't please all the people all of the time..... Maybe variable sized desks are the solution! 6) We are currently trialling a stand-up service point for the Enquiry Support Team, with no chairs provided. However the table we are using is adjustable height and staff do not stand for long periods of time at the service point, they use it during their "roving" shifts to give them the opportunity to bring a student to a desk / PC when required. Some staff prefer to stand at the service point than to rove, some prefer to rove, (all staff do engage with both options) opinion is currently divided on which approach attracts more enquiries - but, as I say, the trial is in progress and that question will hopefully be answered soon. As for the furniture, it is currently a simple round, white table which is adjustable height and has a PC on it. We are investigating other possibilities Thanks once again s