The Sweet Home Public Library recently saw the addition of Rihannon Morton,a grant-funded summer intern, Rihannon Morton. Along with being seen at various public events, Morton has been working behind the scenes at the library since her first appearance at the annual Jim Bean Public Safety Fair in June.
So far, Morton has learned and helped with many things. During her internship, Morton started a program, learned book circulation, cataloging and processing books as well as working with the library’s director in doing a grant. Reflecting on her experience, Morton explained how much she enjoyed this opportunity.
“It’s going really great,” Morton explained.
Although enjoying her time, the original grant only covered a three-month period. This made her last day Aug. 15. According to Kira Mikutaitus, the programming and school district librarian, the Sweet Home Public Library was able to extend Morton’s internship until the end of the month.
“[It’s] so she can experience the full totality of summer reading,” Mikutaitus explained. “For someone who’s interested in library school, that’s a great experience because summer reading can be very daunting.”
As her time comes to an end, Morton was required to come up with some type of program. According to Morton, she was able to use a website that helps librarians figure out themes and different programs. One of those was a dinosaur theme for the month of August. This program began officially with a fossil dig event followed by a showing of Jurassic Park, Aug 9.
“I think [Morton] really stepped up,” Mikutaitus said. “She was a little nervous at first, [as] I don’t think she had done a lot of talking in public settings where she was going to have to explain things to people.”
The fossil dig had children smiling from ear to ear as they tried to dig up fossils in various containers. Kenzlee Brown was one of those kids. She originally attended just for the movie, but ended up walking away with three dino toys.
The event also had Robert Rosé in attendance, a retired geologist who lives east of Sweet Home. Rosé brought fossils for those attending to see, and also answered various questions the kids had about the dinosaurs. The movie portion of the event also saw the Gregory Home Team sponsoring with the idea of giving back to the community.
The library will continue to look for opportunities to have another summer intern going forward.
