About

Why we started

Our founder has worked in a large library system for more than ten years. That’s long enough to see the same problems come up at every branch: public computers that need a reservation system, a cleanup tool and a server to hold them together; staff pulled off the floor when one of them breaks; and the public’s privacy depending on settings nobody has time to check.

A lot of library software is designed a long way from the people who run it on a busy afternoon. Latchwork starts from the other end: what staff and IT teams actually deal with.

What we’re building

Carrel is our first product. It runs shared PCs from sign-in to sign-out: library cards and student IDs, time limits, reservations, waitlists, guest passes and a clean PC for every user, without Deep Freeze or a restart between people. It’s in a pilot with a small number of sites now.

Next come printing, kiosks, and room and equipment booking, all sharing Carrel’s console, portal and sign-in, so staff have one system to learn instead of five.

What we care about

• Staff time. Fewer tickets, fewer workarounds, and no server for the library to babysit.
• Privacy. We store as little as possible about the public, clear every person’s data when they sign out, and delete records on a schedule the library controls.
• Reliability. When the network or the library system goes down, people can still use the computers.
• Accessibility. Everyone should be able to sign in, including people using a screen reader or only a keyboard.

Get in touch

We’d like to hear from libraries, schools and universities, whether you want to try Carrel or just tell us what slows your staff down. Contact us or email info@latchworksystems.com.