Information Technology (IT)
The Minitex Information Technology staff provides innovative, proactive, and collaborative
solutions that achieve the organization's goals while actively exploring emergent technologies
in anticipation of future needs.
Sarah Anderson
I've been working part-time in the Minitex Information Technology unit since 2008. I spend
mornings in IT and the rest of my day in the Minitex-operated high-density
book storage facility (MLAC) where I started working as a student in 2000.
Most of my time in IT is spent getting computers ready to go out for use at staff or student
workstations. I load Windows operating systems and drivers, install software, and do general
troubleshooting. I also am responsible for providing basic workstation support including
resolving help-desk tickets and answering questions.
Scott Hreha
As Minitex Web Services Coordinator, I'm responsible for nearly all of the websites hosted by
Minitex: the main Minitex website, MnKnows,
the ELM Portal, and AskMN.
I've also done customization work on the MnLINK Gateway,
and I designed and continue to maintain the Minnesota Digital
Library site (hosted at St. Cloud State University).
My career at Minitex started in 1997 as a student library assistant, working in the verfication
area of the unit formerly known as Document Delivery. From there, I worked for a few years as a
full-time library assistant before moving into my current position. Though I work primarily in
ASP.NET, I can also hold my own with PHP and other web programming languages. I have a particularly
strong interest in CSS layouts and website usability.
Warren Mason
I started working at Minitex in 2000 as the PC Support Manager after working in a similar position
for the University Libraries. Currently, I am the Windows Systems Administrator overseeing our Windows
workstations and administrating our Windows servers and services like Active Directory and Systems
Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), amongst others.
My goal is to automate as many tasks as possible to keep our machines up to date. A lot of this work
currently is done through Powershell scripts that I wrote and I am now moving towards SCCM.
Paul Swanson
After receiving my History degree from the University of Minnesota, I joined Minitex in 1994
and started out as a student processing Interlibrary Loan requests. Eventually I moved into
a full-time position working in Document Delivery. While working there I went back to school
and received my Computer Science degree and switched positions into Technology. Over the years
I worked my way through all the different computer roles such as workstation support, web
design and programming, Windows and Linux server administration, and database design.
Now I have been concentrating in Windows desktop programming over the past four years or so.
I wrote our MEDD scanning and article delivery program, as well as other applications to help
us track Interlibrary Loan and Reference requests, and E-Resource orders and subscriptions.