The CHDR Inventory System is a web and mobile application built to help the Center for Humanities and Digital Research manage and lend out its research equipment. After CHDR received a $500,000 grant for new equipment—cameras, microfilm scanners, virtual reality headsets, and other specialized gear meant to be shared with students across the university—the lab needed a reliable way to distribute it while keeping careful records of who borrowed what and when. This system provides exactly that. Students use a web portal to browse the available equipment and reserve what they need, while administrators get both web and mobile tools to check items in and out, scan barcodes, and track the full inventory at a glance. Backed by a MySQL database and a Flask-powered API, the application keeps the lab’s valuable resources organized, accountable, and accessible—ensuring that the technology meant to power humanities research actually reaches the students and scholars who need it.
