Denver ? Paper hunting licenses, conservation certificates, long forms and waiting in lines will soon be a part of hunting history in Colorado.

The Division of Wildlife’s licensing system is getting a makeover, and a faster, easier, more efficient and more convenient system for selling hunting and fishing licenses will be unveiled in 2003.

Hunters and anglers will be able to buy a license anytime, anywhere.

Under the new “Total Licensing System” scheduled to get under way in April, the DOW no longer will issue paper licenses to license agents. Instead, agents and DOW offices will use point-of-sale computer terminals, which will print licenses on demand, to sell licenses electronically.

All available licenses can be obtained at any license agent, or even purchased over the Internet or by telephone.

To get a license from an agent or at a DOW office, a customer would come in, identify themselves and tell the agent or DOW employee what type of license he or she would like to buy. The agent then enters the information into the terminal by swiping a driver’s license or by keying it in from the customer or a previously purchased hunting or fishing license.

The terminal uses a telephone line to link to a toll-free number, where the system looks up the customer’s account and verifies license eligibility. If the buyer is a new customer, a new account will be created.

The agent then collects the license fee, prints the license, and gives it to the customer, along with carcass tags if the license requires them. All privileges purchased are printed on a single, compact, durable document about the size of a credit card (when folded) along with necessary customer information.

To get a license by phone, the buyer would call a toll-free license sales number and give a customer service agent his or her identifying information and indicate the desired license.

The agent then connects to the system, which processes the information. The buyer pays with a credit card and tells the agent the way he or she wants to receive the license, by mail or pick up at an agent or DOW office. The customer gets a temporary authorization number, and can receive a receipt by mail.

Central Bank of Missouri was awarded the contract to create the new system for the DOW. Central Bank currently runs systems similar to Colorado’s in seven states Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Wisconsin.