Jan 19, 2016 Archivist/ Poet Paige Roberts 5PM

Paige Roberts  Poet and Archivist at Phillips Academy

Jan 12, 2012 Sydney Adams

Behind the scenes, high on the fifth floor of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library (OWHL), is a vast collection peppered with relics from Andover’s past. As students pass unwittingly in the lower levels of the stacks, Garver Room and the OWHL lobby, leadership of this invaluable collection, the Phillips Academy Archives, has changed hands.

On January 3, 2012 Dr. Paige Roberts succeeded Timothy Sprattler as the School Archivist.
Andover’s archives hold several pieces of the school’s history, with articles ranging from early land deeds and financial records to old fire buckets from the former campus fire station.

As the School Archivist, Roberts will be in charge of sorting, organizing and digitizing these mementos from Andover’s history.

Elizabeth Tully, Director of the OWHL, said, “Paige is poised to lead the Archive as we plan for an increasingly integrated digital future.”


Beyond her proficiency in organizing and preserving records, Roberts was selected because of her potential to “engage with the curriculum and prepare materials and activities to support original archival research by students.”

Roberts has also been named the Associate Director of the OWHL, a position which extends her duties to other portions of the library.

Roberts brings classroom experience to the position, having served as an instructor of American Studies at the University of Southern Maine (USM). At USM, Roberts helped provide references to scholars and design archiving spaces for institutions.

Throughout her professional years, Roberts has developed new archival techniques to increase the accessibility and vitality of the archived collections. While she was the director of the Beverly Historical Society, she developed “model archival collaborations” which allowed for the exchange of materials between schools and public libraries.

Roberts also served as the head of special collections at the State Library of Massachusetts in Boston, an archivist at Springfield College, Director of the Beverly Historical Society and will soon be the President of the New England Archivists.

To reduce the time it would take for Roberts to adjust to Andover and the OWHL, Sprattler spent his final months as School Archivist orchestrating an enormous renovation of the school’s archives. Just a week into her position, Roberts has been able to successfully navigate through the historical resources.

Roberts received a B.A. from Bates College in Political Science, a MLS from Simmons College concentrating in archives management, and a Ph.D. in American Studies from George Washington University with an emphasis in New England culture

Alexis Ivy Jan 12, 2016

 

Poet Alexis Ivy

Alexis Ivy is an educator of high-risk populations in her hometown, Boston.  Her most recent poems have appeared in Main Street Rag, Off The Coast, Spare Change News, Tar River Poetry, The Santa Fe Literary Review, Eclipse, Yellow Medicine Review, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, J Journal and upcoming in The Worcester Review.  Her first poetry collection, Romance with Small-Time Crooks was published in 2013 by BlazeVOX [books].  She is  finding a home for her next collection, Taking the Homeless Census which has been a runner-up for University of Wisconsin's Brittingham & Felix Pollack Prize.