Volunteers and Docents
Continuing education training with IARC volunteers and staff
Volunteers are the lifeblood of an institution such as SAR. The SAR offers volunteer opportunities in collections, registration, docenting, and education at the IARC. Volunteer opportunities are also available at the Catherine McElvain Library and SAR Press. Over the last several years, volunteers have generously given innumerable hours of their time to support the mission of SAR.
Collections and registration volunteers work on many tasks essential to IARC’s operation, including object accessioning, collections photography and inventory, data entry, and a host of other duties that arise in the management of the collection. They allow IARC to maintain, improve, and preserve the collection and its records, thereby making them more accessible.
Docents guide the regular weekly public tours at the IARC as well as the many private groups that come through our doors. They provide visitors with the introductory knowledge required to make connections between the material culture they are seeing and the historical and intellectual context of which they were and are a significant part.
Education volunteers work on implementing the IARC’s educational programs. This includes assisting with outreach, conducting tours, and working with developing new tours and programs. Volunteers work to ensure programs are available to visitors of all ages.
Press volunteers may assist in packing books, cleaning shelves, or stocking.
Library volunteers perform a variety of tasks which contribute to the smooth functioning of the library. The tasks depend on the abilities and interests of the volunteer and range from shelving, interlibrary loan, and public service to archival processing, scanning, and data entry.
Volunteers and docents become SAR members, are noted in the annual report, and participate in several special events. Every year SAR hosts a volunteer appreciation luncheon.
Training
Potential docents and volunteers participate in a training program pertinent to their chosen interests at IARC, SAR Press, or McElvain Library. Depending on the experience of a potential docent or volunteer and their area of interest, the initial training may last anywhere from a few hours to several months.
For Indian Arts Research Center volunteers and docents, quarterly meetings are held, in which continuing education training is provided. In these sessions, guest speakers from a wide variety of backgrounds lecture on areas pertaining to the collection, volunteering or Native issues.
For more information, please contact:
School for Advanced Research
P.O. Box 2188
Santa Fe, NM 87504-2188
iarc[at]sarsf.org
(505) 954-7205
(505) 954-7207 fax