Emily Metzger | ASP Mass Media Student Writer
The Ohrstrom library is arguably one of the top study spots for the students at the Advanced Studies Program. Many students utilize the beautiful library daily, but don’t always take the time to acknowledge the wonderful librarians that create an enjoyable environment. One of these people working to make the library a pleasant space is St. Paul’s school librarian, David Levesque.
Levesque has been a librarian here at St. Paul’s for the past 34 years. Immediately after he graduated high school, he joined the Air Force and served for four years. After that, he went to college where he acquired a major in English.
He started out as the catalog librarian here. Over the years, Levesque has witnessed many changes to the library, including the building of the new library in 1991. The planning of the new library included an archive section, which was intended to preserve school history and make it accessible to students in one place.
Levesque was asked to manage the school archives and accepted the offer. The archives, which are located on the lower level of the library, are unknown to many students here at ASP. They include many historic pictures, old school publications like the school newspaper and alumni magazine dating back to 1860, and records of past school offices.
When he graduated from college, he returned to his hometown of Concord, N.H., where he worked at the public library. During this job, he learned about an opening at the St. Paul’s library and has been here since 1985.
As time passed, Levesque became a resource of school history. He enjoys the research for the archives, which he described as “detective work.” Levesque stated, “the whole campus is filled with history which makes this a very rewarding job.”
One of the most important parts of his job is to interact and communicate with others regarding matters such as alumni, family history, and searching for ancestors who attended St. Paul’s. He works for the St. Paul’s communications office where he collaborated on feature articles about the school history and the alumni magazine. In addition to his work at the St. Paul’s community, Levesque works with writers and filmmakers outside of school on projects related to St. Paul’s and its alumni.
The library contains over 70,000 print books and lots of digital resources. For instance, the library website is home to 50 digital collections in all different subject areas and 100,000s of eBooks that are accessible to all students. The archives are really a unique resource because they’re irreplaceable and are unique.
He is very passionate about his job, which requires him to perform a range of tasks within the library. Whether he is developing archives or promoting school history using web exhibits, he loves what he is doing.
If you have the chance, go check out some of the amazing resources at the library!
ASP Mass Media 
Glad to see recognition for David. He has always been a friendly and helpful resource himself for those in need. And be sure to ask him about his guitar playing, too!
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