Getting Started

Hello all,
I am new to python and I am trying to help be more organized in my office. The problem is this... We have a tool box and we need to keep track of who takes what tools when and when they are returned. Also I need the functionality of reassigning the tools to another person without checking them back in one at a time. I am not sure how to go about starting this, the problem I am running into is that I do not know how to create a loop to input the tool serial numbers and save them too a text file. I was thinking the name of the text file could be the employee number and inside the file is a list of the tools and their serial numbers. Some times people have different numbers of tools they are checking out, can I make the loop continue until the user enters a certain phrase? would it be possible to keep all the entries in one text file? like Employee# then list the tools 1 2 3? I am assuming I can use a similar loop for checking the tools back in... The last function I need to figure out is how I am going to assign the Tools to a new employee from the person that already has it. We leave the tools at the station so rescanning all of them is time consuming. Im not asking for someone to do this work for me I am just hoping more experienced people can help me find a direction that will work and help me figure out how to achieve this functionality.

please dont kill the newb

You could maintain a dictionary of tools, with each tool (the key) store a list of most recent 3 people to have the tool and the date of transfer. Then shelve the dictionary for permanence.

Direct transfers between people is convenient, but without checking in through a central point how do you ensure record maintenance?