Survey of Ergonomics Databases in Member Countries of the International Ergonomics Association.

This report surveys the status of ergonomics databases in the member countries of the International Ergonomics Association. Most ergonomic data is available only in the literature where it was first reported. Few formal data collections exist and very few computerized databases were found in this survey. Handbooks and textbooks are still the main sources of collected ergonomics data. Anthropometry is the only body of information in which we found significant collections of international data currently available in computerized form. Most ergonomics data are still embedded in the published literature. Recent use of the computer for ergonomics data gathering and data analysis has created the potential for previously existing limited studies of small populations to be extended into entirely new automated databases, but this potential has not been realized. After reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of available published data compendia and then describing the few large scale databases found in the survey, this report presents some examples of how existing data-gathering systems could be used to build new automated databases.