Many college students apply for work study positions at their university with the intention of gaining job experience, not expecting a lifelong career to come of it. However, 2008 Point Park University graduate Phillip Harrity received a full-time job from his work study position.

“The more that I was here, the more I realized that history wasn’t a hobby anymore,” Harrity said.

After a nine year career, Harrity is currently leading the moving of the Point Park University Archive from the library to the Boulevard Apartment residence hall.

Currently, Harrity actually has three job titles: Access Services, Archival Coordinator and Data Management. The Access Services portion of his job involves checking items in and out of the library, working with student workers and ensuring that the day-to-day operations of the library run correctly.

His duties as the Archival Coordinator include preserving the school’s history through images, documents, yearbooks, photos, newspapers or any historical content that relates to Point Park or downtown Pittsburgh. He then makes it available to anyone who is doing research and needs to access information. In addition, Harrity manages data for the marketing department.

While studying as a sports, arts and entertainment management major, Harrity worked in the library as a work-study employee where he learned from the library’s archivist, gathering information and depositing it into a central location. Upon arrival at Point Park University, Harrity planned to pursue a career in entertainment management and marketing, but he discovered a strong passion for history while working in the library.

“History was something that I wanted to pursue, so I started looking into museums, libraries and things like that.”

When it came time for Harrity to graduate in 2008, the library staff did not know if it could operate properly without him.

“We did not want to lose him,” Library Director Elizabeth Evans said. “Phil had proven himself to be the amazingly talented person that he is, so we asked him to become a full-time employee with us.”

Senior criminal justice major Patty Sorg works as an archive assistant under the direction of Harrity.

“He is so personable and knows so much about the university,” Sorg said. “I feel like he takes extra steps with his work study students and really knows who they are.”

Sorg appreciates Harrity for even deeper reasons.

“He feels like a mentor,” Sorg said. “If I ever have questions about the school or classes or even just day-to-day life, I feel like his ears are always open to hear me.”

Since the archive is continuously growing, the size of the library’s archival storage area was not able to suffice. Harrity and Evans were in need of a larger area with improved conditions to better preserve the items in the archive. As a result, the archive was recently relocated to the basement of the Boulevard Apartments residence hall, where there is four times the size of the library’s storage space. Harrity and Evans are pleased with the new location and its features of temperature and humidity control that will better preserve the items. 

Harrity and the library staff plan to continue their efforts to preserve the historical elements of the Point Park community.  “These are pieces of our school’s history,” Harrity said. “It’s important to not only see where our school has been, but you can actually follow trends almost to see where the school will be.”