Linda,

I work with students in our History/Museum Studies program on a daily basis. I work with student volunteers, interns, work study students, T.A.s, and students doing independent studies  I’ve added my answers at the end of your questions.

 

What is the average length of service for the students? Students usually volunteer one semester (about 4 months) and then receive a certificate for their hours. If they decide to volunteer the following semester and I know before the current semester is finished, we wait to lump all of the volunteer hours from both semesters on the certificate.

                Do they receive academic credit? The students are required to volunteer at museums as part of the Museum Studies program. So, they don’t receive formal academic credit hours unless they are interning, but not volunteering can make a difference in the grade they receive in their museum studies classes.

                How often are the training sessions? I do one training session at the beginning of the semester and then individual training on projects they are assigned to. Our museum is pretty small, though, so larger museums may do more training.

                Do you work primarily with graduate or undergraduate students? Both.

                Do you have a “traditional” docent corps as well? No. As I mentioned above, our museum is very small, and our museum is actually pretty geared to providing experience for the students in the Museum Studies program.

                Do the student docents tour selected exhibitions and only parts of the collection or do they tour the entire museum? In our case, it is the entire museum. The students have to become familiar with the exhibits as part of their introduction to the museum. They are also given tour guide information if they are to do tours.

I hope this helps. We are a pretty small operation, but we try to give the students as much training as we can.

Heidi

Heidi Vaughn

Director

Laboratory of History Museum

Dept. of History & Geography

University of Central Oklahoma

100 N. University Dr.

Edmond, OK 73034

(405) 974-5789

www.uco.edu

hvaughn@uco.edu

historymuseum@uco.edu