Unattended Equipment Loan System?

captnitro asks: "I run a small media lab for a department at a large public university. We have about 120 faculty and and equal number of graduate students who from time to time need things like digital cameras, video equipment, projectors, EyeOne units, and so on. (While there is a central location on campus for students, faculty and staff to get some of this equipment, we stock a few specialized pieces that our faculty need.) Since I'm out of the office a lot, I'm looking for a clever way of loaning out equipment that doesn't involve me being there and is secure enough that our administrators deem it "theft resistant" enough to implement. I've looked into small safes with PINs, or card readers (all faculty have IDs with magstripes), blah blah blah, but most of these are prohibitively expensive, so I'm thinking of hacking something together myself.. though I have no idea how I'd do that. Any thoughts?" Solutions could range from the clever and mixed tech (cheap locked boxes with combinations sent through encrypted e-mail), through high tech (use of the existing ID cards system) to unlock delivery boxes. If you were going to set up a system like this, how would you do it?

Comments

Pay Someone

[miyako]

Seems to me that the easiest solution would be to higher someone, say a student, to work checking stuff out. Any sort of authentication system that's based on the id cards is suseptible to theft if someone steals someone else's id card. Having a system where someone can email a request for equipment might be workable, but I suspect that it would end up costing quite a bit of money just for that many safes, plus the hassle of resetting the combination every time someone checks something out. One thing you might consider is just putting a card reader on the door that's tied to the lock, and then putting a security camera in the room. Even if you don't have the time to actually go through all the tapes, being on camera can be somewhat of a deturrent.
Also remember that any system you implement to check out equipment also has to make it easy to return equipment. This means that automated solutions need to not rest combinations or whatever until the equipment is returned.
Also, if you choose to go with a technology solution, remember that even if it seems expensive, think of the cost of the equipment that could be stolen, or the cost of paying someone to man the desk.

Can you say "library"?

[unitron]

Yes, I know you asked for an "unattended" solution, but I'm sure that your university is already paying lots of money to run a library where people can go to check out other stuff, so make your stuff part of what people can check out at the library, provided, of course, that they can prove to the library staff that they are authorized to check out these items. Transfer a small amount of your department's budget to the library to cover their extra expense and it'll probably be by far the cheapest way to go and you get to take credit for saving them a lot of money.

Student Workers

[Wog]

I'm one of the two staffers for my University's Instructional Technology and Campus Media Office (Whew!) and all I can say is: student workers. We keep 10 or so around for 6-10 hours per week. They take requests, make equipment deliveries, and generally follow our every nefarious whim as far as checking out equipment. The university pays them tax-free $5.25/hour. They love it because %90 of the time they can sit and do homework, surf the web, etc.

It's great for us because we're free to work on more involved projects without worrying that Dr. Smith isn't going to get her LaserDisc player on time. Student workers are also neat to have around.. We maintain a very casual, but very efficient, atmosphere in the office.

While what you're doing MAY be possible without human help, I get the feeling that any automated solution will cause you to spend more time babysitting it than doing your job.

Good luck, and don't forget to change the air filters on those projectors!

Psychology

[snooo53]

I have to disagree. There are psychological ways of stopping theft that are probably more effective than technical ways (or at least complementary to them). Anyone determined enough can find a way around technical safeguards... your goal should be to make them stand out like a purple cow!

-I think the best is simply putting whatever solution you have in a highly visible area, like in a commons area. It's rare that you see a car broken into right in front of the entrance to a store, where everyone can see it.

-Lock it up at the end of the night, by putting a cage around it.

-Put a sign up, "This automated rental system generously donated by (whomever gave you a few bucks to implement this)".

-Have a loud alarm that sounds if it is broken into.

-Put up a camera inside, and have one in a separate location facing the person so everyone who uses it can be identified. Or at least a sign saying "This machine under electronic surveillance".

The key here is not to making it technically impossible to steal something, but to strongly discourage it. And to make it more likely to identify someone who does manage to break into it. You know those signs around military areas that say "Use of deadly force authorized"? Do you really think they put them up because they intend to shoot to kill everyone who wanders in there? Absolutely not. Psychology is a very powerful tool- use it however you can.