Interview with Tammy Blackwell, May 18, 2023

BRINTON: All right. This is Alaina Brinton. I'm here with Tammy Blackwell. It is May 18 at 1:30 p.m., and we're here for the Kentucky COVID Storytelling Oral History Project. And we're ready to get started. We're gonna talk a lot about COVID here today, but before we do that, so that the listeners get to know you a little better, can you tell me a little about yourself?

BLACKWELL: Um, my name is Tammy Blackwell and I am from Marshall County, Kentucky, which is that little piece of Kentucky that sticks off there out in the west that nobody really knows what happens over there. Um, I began working in the Kentucky Public Libraries seventeen years ago this month, and I started as a circulation clerk. I worked as a teen librarian for eight years. I worked as a branch manager for five years, and in May of 2020, I became the Director of the Marshall County Public Library. So--

BRINTON: --that--that's some excellent timing--

BLACKWELL: --that's--(laughs)--that's my career path.

BRINTON: And, uh, what about your family? Can you tell me a little bit about your family?

BLACKWELL: Sure. Um, my mother, sister, and I are raising two girls together. Um, s--it's, um, in-family adoption type thing, and so I have two girls. One is twelve and a lover of Broadway and musical theater, and the other one is ten, and she's going to save the world. Uh, her--nature is her happy place and she's very talented artistically, and she just loves to get out in nature and make art with it and draw it, and she's a really connected to the Earth kind of person.

BRINTON: That's lovely. You said your mother, your sister, and you? So are you--

BLACKWELL: --yes--

BRINTON: --all, like, living together?

BLACKWELL: We do. Um, my sister and I had bought a house together, um, several years ago because the--that's just easier when you--(laughs)--buy a 00:02:00house. And, um, and then when the oldest child came to live with us, she actually went to live with my mother first, and, um, my mother was recently widowed, and it took her a little while to realize that raising a child in your late fifties--a toddler--is not the same as when you have a toddler in your twenties. --(laughs)--And so, um, she came to live with us so that we could all pitch in and make it work.

BRINTON: And it's working all right?

BLACKWELL: It's working pretty good, yeah.

BRINTON: That's good. All right. So, if you could describe your experience or your life during COVID in one word, what would it be?

BLACKWELL: Uncertain.

BRINTON: And can you expand upon that?

BLACKWELL: Um, as I said, I took over as director in, um, March 2020. I was at a new branch--like, a newly-built branch. It was supposed to open 00:03:00March 17. Um, I'd spent the previous, um, fourteen years of my career in the same branch, and so I'd just moved buildings into a new building that I didn't know at all, because I knew the old main branch, but I didn't know this building at all. I didn't know how to be a director, and then here this was, this, this thing, where I had to make these huge decisions, and there was no one really giving guidance for libraries. And so, um, it was just a season of uncertainty.

BRINTON: And I know you had mentioned to me previously, what was your first, uh, decision move that you had to make as the director of the library?

BLACKWELL: My first decision as the director of the library was to close it.

BRINTON: And how did that go?

BLACKWELL: You know, it was not--there was not as much pushback as I 00:04:00expected. Um, I expected to be--people to be upset that the library had closed. Um, what we did was we went to curbside service only for a couple of days so people could get materials before we completely went home and stayed there. Um, I had all the phones for the library forwarded to my cell phone. Um, we were answering reference questions through Facebook, through email, and that sort of thing, so people still had some access. They just weren't coming into the buildings. And I, I th--I think even if we hadn't shut down the buildings, people wouldn't have been coming in anyways. I mean, there in the beginning--I think it's hard for some people to remember--we were all very scared, and everyone was, like, "No, I'm just going to stay in my house."

BRINTON: While you were there, and you were doing the, the curbside delivery, um, were there any other actions you guys were taking inside of the 00:05:00library to help keep yourself safe?

BLACKWELL: Um, this was, again, so early on. All we knew was we didn't need to be right up on top of each other, um, and we had hand sanitizer everywhere. And that was about it at, at the very--you know, those, those, like, three days, I believe, is what we did curbside service only, um, and we were taking it out to the cars. So we were, like, sliding it into the back seat or whatever so that we weren't necessarily coming in full contact with, um, the patrons, but--

BRINTON: --what, what happened in those three days that went from "Maybe we'll try curbside?" to "We're just gonna, we're just gonna shut it down"?

BLACKWELL: During that time is when, like, the restaurants got shut down, and, um, I had talked to my health department. Our library has a very good relationship with our health department, and so I was able to call somebody there and be like, "Hey, is this curbside okay?" And in the beginning, they were like, "Yeah, and if it's not, we'll let you know." And, um, so, a 00:06:00couple of days later, they were like, "I think maybe you need to just go home." Yeah.

BRINTON: During that time, when you were shut down, were you still working? Were there things you were working on, or was your--you just paused?

BLACKWELL: No, um, we were all doing stuff. Programming is a huge part of public libraries these days. Um, it's just--that's kind of the core of who we are as much as our collections. And so, we wanted to continue programming, and so we were doing online things a lot. Um, our community is very much on Facebook. You reach the most people that way. So, we were doing, um--like, our children's librarians were doing videos at home to encourage kids to do different crafts or science activities. Um, one of my children's librarians set up, you know, books all through her house, and then did the little, like, plop one over and they all went like dominos, and, and we created, like, online escape rooms. We 00:07:00had an online book club that we were doing that was really popular during that time because what else--(laughs)--are you going to do? So, you know, every two weeks, we had a new book, and we would discuss it in a Facebook group. So, the staff was still working, but we were working from our houses--except for me. I would go in every other day to do the things that needed to be done, like sign checks and what not, and it was like being a ghost. You know, this brand-new building, and I'm just, like, the only person in there when that should never be the case--(laughs)--with a public library. It should always be full and loud, which I know people don't think library is loud, but that's the way we are--they are now, and it was, it was very weird. --(laughs)--

BRINTON: That's--and we asked you to bring something with you--

BLACKWELL: --sure--

BRINTON: --and I see that you have brought something. Can you hold that up--

BLACKWELL: --sure--

BRINTON: --so we can maybe see it? And--

BLACKWELL: --so one of the things in our new branch was we had our first ever maker space with a laser cutter. So, when it came time to slowly 00:08:00reopen to the public, um, they were able to make sneeze guards and things like that in our maker space. So, we weren't having to buy those things. We were making them ourselves. We could etch our logo into stuff. And one of the things, as we were reopening, that other libraries was talking about was getting rid of the furniture because you want people to come in, get their materials, and immediately leave. So, the furniture that we could not just stuff somewhere, we made these.

BRINTON: Oh, that's perfect.

BLACKWELL: And this, this has a little foot that goes in it, and we would set it on all of our nice, beautiful, comfortable, new furniture, and I think that broke my heart more than anything else because we had just finished this building that was built to invite people in and to have them stay. We 00:09:00want the library to be the heart of the community, the place that the community comes, the palace for the people, if you will, um, as Carnegie said. And all of the sudden, we were telling them they couldn't sit down, and it just--every time I saw one of these signs, it absolutely broke my heart.

BRINTON: That's--w--how did you still make that connection with the community that you normally would've had inside of that building, inside of that little community building? Were you able to?

BLACKWELL: Only on small--much smaller degree than we do now, and we did before. Um, I know at one point, I was outside somebody's screen door, walking them through putting the Libby app on their phone so they could check out e-books. Um, you know, I was like, "I have nothing better to do than to drive to your house and stand outside your screen door to--(laughs)--get your through this." Um, so we were able to make some really good individual connections, 00:10:00um, with people. You know, as I said, the phones were forwarded to my cell phone, so there I--you know, I was in my home office, talking to people, and sometimes people were just lonely. And so, uh, those conversations might go on a little long, but it was okay because, again, there was nothing pressing. There wasn't ten people needing to be checked out at the circulation desk or anything like that. So, we were able to make some really strong individual connections, but the, the wide net that we normally cast was not there.

BRINTON: That's--I know that libraries can be a hub for, like--for teens, for people who need the Internet, for seniors and groups.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

BRINTON: Has that stuff bounced back?

BLACKWELL: Programming has bounced back in a way that I would not have ever believed. Our programming numbers are through the roof. In April, we had s--seventy-something programs with over thirty-five hundred 00:11:00attendees. I mean, just really large numbers there. What we are not seeing is Internet use as we did. People are still coming to our parking lot and using the free wi-fi, um, and we have a hundred hot spots at the Marshall County Public Library that we check out and always have a hold list on. Um, that sort of thing has increased. But people coming in to use the public computers, we used to not have a free spot at all, and I don't know that I've ever seen more than three people there at a time now. Uh--

BRINTON: --that's a--they would rather be in, in the parking lot, like, on their own laptop than come inside?

BLACKWELL: Um-hm. Yeah. And then teens used to always come--especially, like, middle schoolish age teens, like, that ten to thirteen crowd would always come in after school and play their Roblox or Minecraft or whatever, and you would always have this nice little group of them. They have not returned 00:12:00because now all those kids take a laptop home. And so that's where they're able to play. They don't have to come to the library to do that. So, we've, we've lost some things like that. Um, DVD checkouts are nothing like they were before COVID hit. Before COVID hit, it was--DVDs were a big game for libraries. They still get checked out, but nowhere near what they did, and--but then other things--especially toddler and preschool programming is, is just more than we ever saw before.

BRINTON: Oh, it's more now?

BLACKWELL: Oh yeah.

BRINTON: --(laughs)--And what about, um, like, non-Internet, non-tech groups? I know, like, my local library has sewing groups and quilting groups that come in--

BLACKWELL: --um-hm.

BRINTON: --do you still have a lot of that activity?

BLACKWELL: We do, and it took a long time to build back up. One of the reasons we needed to build a new branch was because the old, uh, main branch 00:13:00only had one meeting room space, and it was very evident for, like, a ten-year period that we needed more meeting room space, um, for our community. And so, the new building has two large meeting rooms that can each hold, like, 150, but can--there's a divide--the dividing wall can be moved out so it holds three hundred. Um, we have a conference room that holds about ten. We have a study room that holds a few. Um, we have a Kentucky reference room that we can put groups in on occasion if they need to, and then we all--have a children's programming room, and there are times every single one of those rooms are filled now.

BRINTON: So that's a good thing.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And, I mean, it took--it--again, it took us a long time to get back there. Um, I, I remember clearly--it was about this time last year, and I was walking through the library, and there was a book club meeting in the ref--uh, the Kentucky reference room. Um, there was somebody doing, uh, some sort of job coaching or something in the study room. There were men 00:14:00in suits. I don't even know what they were doing --(Brinton laughs)--in Meeting Room B. In the conference room, there were roofers, and in Meeting Room A was our Tops Group, which are the most fun old ladies you will ever meet in your life. Nobody has as much fun as they do. And it was just this, this moment when I was like, "We're back. We're back. This is, this is who we are." You know, you have somebody learning. You have all stratas of the population here, and they're doing all these different things, and we're finally--but that was May of 2022.

BRINTON: Um-hm.

BLACKWELL: I mean, that was more than two years where I felt like we were not operating as a public library should.

BRINTON: Do you ever see--so that--basically those two years, that sort of gap in the ability to pri--provide service, do you see the impact in the community at all?

BLACKWELL: Um, I do in the teens coming into the library. I was a 00:15:00teen librarian for eight years, and I'll tell you, it's hard to get teens in the library anyway. --(Brinton laughs)--But we always had a fairly decent number. It was small group, but it was a tight group, you know? They were always gonna be there. They were always gonna come to the programs. They were always going to do everything, and they knew all the librarians by name, and all the librarians knew them, everything. And we've lost that because of that--and I do believe it's that two-year thing, that they weren't coming in during that transitional phase from being a child to a teen, and so they lost that. Um, I am hopeful that that will grow back as, as I said, our toddler, pre-K, and even elementary school is really booming right now. So, I'm hoping as these elementary kids age up, that they continue to love the library, they continue to come in, and we get that crowd back. But I do think that we lost the teens in those two years.

BRINTON: That's--sort of like the, the do not sit sign, are there any 00:16:00other particular, like, moments or memories that are very salient about, like, what that time was like for you?

BLACKWELL: Um, so, we did not let people return material initially. We were like, "We don't know what to do with it, so just keep it at home." --(both laugh)--Um, and so I remember when we opened back up, we were gonna--we let them bring their material back, and, like, all the products I had to get beforehand--because IMLS [editor's note: Institute of Museum and Library Services] did this study that said it could live on a book for a week.

BRINTON: I remember those.

BLACKWELL: And so, we were going in. We bought aprons, and I just remember, like, that first time that I had on an apron, and I had on gloves, and I had on a mask, and I was pulling books out of the thing, and I was like, "This is--you know, it's like I'm handling radioactive material," and it's just 00:17:00these books I've been handling for the past--however many years it was at that point, you know?

BRINTON: Right.

BLACKWELL: Like, it, it was just so--and to be scared of the books, because there was still that fear. Like, "What if I do catch it from these books?" This was before the vaccine, and it was just that, "Oh no, what if?" We didn't reali--you know, at this point, we feel that it's almost impossible to catch it from holding a book, um, but at that time, it was just scary and weird to have that--the fear of something that had been part of your life for so long.

BRINTON: And when did you open back up?

BLACKWELL: We kind of soft opened late May, early June. Um, there was a lot of discussion as to where libraries fit into the governor's reopening plan, so it was kind--nobody knew. Libraries were never directly stated, "This is 00:18:00where you are," and because we're such a unique place, it was like, "Are we museums? Are we--what--where do we go?" And so, it was kind of a slow opening that we did. I think, you know, it was, like, limited hours, and we started with curbside only and then slowly let people back into the building to, uh, reacclimate. But in those early days, it was not a lot of people. It's not like we opened the door and they rushed in.

BRINTON: And was that, that initial opening and interaction with people again, was that scary? Kind of like the, the cleaning and the--

BLACKWELL: --yeah--

BRINTON: --handling of the things?

BLACKWELL: Yeah. You, you know, you worried, and, um, by that time, we were starting to get the pushback. Um, you know, people who didn't want to wear m--wear a mask, who didn't want to social distance, who didn't want to do any of that stuff. And so you worried every day that somebody was going to 00:19:00come in and, you know, see your signs that say, "You have to wear a mask," get upset. We did not--we were very lucky. We never had any incident that was upsetting or anything. We had a few people that, you know, would scoff and--but they would put the mask on anyway.

BRINTON: Um-hm.

BLACKWELL: And so I think our fear was more the fear of aggressiveness than the illness, even, in those early days.

BRINTON: It's the public-facing aspect. --(laughs)--

BLACKWELL: That public-facing aspect. You never know what to expect from day to day, and 99.9 percent of the people who walk in our door are absolutely amazing and wonderful, but we have over 100,000 people walk through the door--(laughs)--every year, so that point-one means every once and a while, you have, you have a bad moment.

BRINTON: So COVID has obviously turned your work life all the way 00:20:00upside down and maybe around again. Um, did it impact your personal life as well? Your family life?

BLACKWELL: Um, I don't have a lot of extended family, so the five of us, you know, pretty much stayed home. But we are not stay-home kind of people. We are travelers. We're go-out-to-eaters. --(laughs)--You know, all those things that you weren't able to do anymore, and so we got back from Disneyland in California, like, mid-February, --(laughs)--that was our last big trip, and then all of the sudden, you couldn't do much. So, we ended up, uh, going to a lot of Kentucky state parks during that time. It--you know, Kentucky state parks are great because you can get a whole cabin, and that way you're not having to interact with other people. You can go do grocery pickup, and so you're not having to go to restaurants and the such. And then we have gorgeous 00:21:00trails--absolutely amazing trails. And so, for two years, my family was hikers. We are not naturally hikers, but we were for two years. We were out in the woods, hiking the trails, seeing the waterfalls, um, and doing all that stuff that--and, and it was nice. It was nice for that slowed-down pace. But yes, as soon as we could, we were back in hotel rooms and--(laughs)--

BRINTON: --have you, have you been hiking since?

BLACKWELL: Um, no.

BRINTON: --(both laugh)-- Perfect. What about the kids? Did they enjoy that? Or were they happy to get back to a regular routine?

BLACKWELL: So we opted to do NTI [editor's note: non-traditional instruction] all of the 2021 school year.

BRINTON: Okay.

BLACKWELL: This--again, before the vaccines were available--you know, my mother is older. Uh, my sister and I both have cor--comor--comorbidities, 00:22:00whatever those--the words are. We were both high risk.

BRINTON: Gotcha.

BLACKWELL: And so it did not seem like a safe idea to send them to school, even though they would be fine probably if they caught it. If they gave it to us, we were not sure that we would be. Um, so, they did NTI that year, and that was very hard. Um, one of my children thrived. She--being able to take her own pace--she has a lot of anxiety issues, so being able to pace herself, it was very freeing for her. It was a great experience. The other one did not. --(laughs)-- Did not take to it well, um, so there was a lot of struggle there. And, of course, they missed their friends. They, they missed that interaction and all of that. So they were very excited the next year to go back to school in a classroom setting.

BRINTON: Did you notice any, any, um, impact on their actual school performance during the NTI time?

BLACKWELL: The--they had a little trouble retransitioning back into a classroom. Um, the, the oldest one with the anxiety, she really had a lot of trouble with that time constraint being put back on her. Um, that, that was very difficult. But I do not feel like either of them lost knowledge. Um, you know, in public libraries, we talk about summer slide all the time, so we know about how when you're removed from a classroom, if you're not actively learning, you lose some of what you had already learned. I do not feel like either of them had that happen because of NTI, because we were actively making sure that they were learning during that time. So I don't feel like they were behind the other children or anything like that, but that transition back into a classroom was difficult.

BRINTON: You think they've fully recovered now? They're back, back on track?

BLACKWELL: Very much so, yeah. --(laughs)-- Kids are resilient and amazing.

BRINTON: And what about you as a parent? Did you have to do--oh, did you have to interact a lot more with the schoolwork itself since they were at home and doing their home learning?

BLACKWELL: I actually have always had to do that a lot. Um, a lot of homework in our house and a lot of, um, restating things so that the kids understand it. So, it wasn't an extreme change on my end. It was for my mother, who retired from healthcare in December of 2019. She was a chief clinical officer of our local hospital, so great timing for her.

BRINTON: Right.

BLACKWELL: Um, so her staying home, not being in a hospital, and then having to oversee the education of these two kids, that was a big change for her.

BRINTON: Maybe not the retirement she was quite looking for.

BLACKWELL: --(laughs)-- No, no, it, it, it was not exactly what she 00:25:00was expecting.

BRINTON: Were there any other changes to your daily routine, um, either at work--well, maybe not at work so much, but in your home life that you noticed?

BLACKWELL: Um, not so much routine as--like many people, I really struggled with depression during that time. It hit me very, very hard. I've struggled with depression since I was in college, and so I'm a person who would've normally read, like, fifty books a year, and I was reading, like, twenty books a year--

BRINTON: --yeah--

BLACKWELL: --there for a couple of years. And often I w--I had never reread a book before then. You know, why would you reread a book when there's so many other stories to experience? And I was just rereading and rereading and rereading because I needed that comfort and that, you know, you know 00:26:00it's all going to work out. You don't have to worry about--you don't have to get stressed out. Um, and that's probably the major difference in--for me when I think back to COVID is, you know, I wasn't reading. I wasn't doing--you know, I was doing a lot of mindless scrolling, which isn't normally my thing. It was--there was some difference in behaviors.

BRINTON: Do you think that was a result of just the, the shakeup in your life? Or the fear? Or a little bit of everything?

BLACKWELL: I think it was everything all at once. That was a lot, and--

BRINTON: --yeah--

BLACKWELL: --in the moment, you kn--you knew it was a lot, and you could, you know, say, "Oh God, I'm going through a lot right now." But in retrospect, wow, that was a lot. --(laughs)-- It was just--um, we actually had gotten the younger sister--our second child--only a year before. We got her in February 00:27:00of 2019. So that was a major change to our family, and then here a year later, we're all stuck in a house together, and it--and I had all these change at work, and it was a lot all at once. And that--I know that I am not the only person who was experiencing--it was just a tumultuous time of life anyway, and then to have that added on was a lot.

BRINTON: That is--that--that's a lot all at once. Were you, were you able to get the help that you needed? Did you reach out?

BLACKWELL: Um, yes. I initially reached out to, uh, my primary care physician. We tried some medicines and such, um, and eventually I had to do the DNA thing to figure out which medications would actually work for me because the one I was on was not. --(laughs)-- And--so it, it took time. It took some counseling, um, and really it's probably been in, within the last six months that I 00:28:00felt like myself again--

BRINTON: --um-hm.

BLACKWELL: --and I've already read thirty books this year.

BRINTON: --(both laugh)-- On track to make up for lost time.

BLACKWELL: Yes. --(laughs)--

BRINTON: Did you feel any social isolation during that time?

BLACKWELL: Um, a bit. I remember I had gone to the library to sign checks and do whatever it is a director needs to do, and the branch manager for that branch had came in that day to do stuff she needed to do as well, and I remember her being in her office and the door open, and me having a chair, like, a good ten feet from her open door, but us talking for ages just because we hadn't. You ha--we hadn't had that opportunity to just sit and talk to somebody who wasn't our family, or not through FaceTime, or--and it was just so, like, "Oh God, I needed this." --(laughs)-- Um, so it was one of those moments where you don't realize how isolated you feel, how alone you were, until you weren't, 00:29:00and then you were like, "Oh, oh, I missed this."

BRINTON: Were you able to keep in touch with your other friends, uh, using FaceTime or Zoom or--

BLACKWELL: --oh yeah, we, we did some--you know, we did some FaceTime parties. We did some--there was, like, a trivia game that we could all play and talk to each other at the same time, and we did some things like that just, uh, just to stay in touch.

BRINTON: Do you feel like you were able to maintain those relationships?

BLACKWELL: I do. I don't think any of my relationships changed because of COVID.

BRINTON: Other than switching to NTI, were there other methods you used to keep you and your family safe? Did you mask? Were you working on distancing?

BLACKWELL: Yes. We, we were all about masking. Um, still if I do not feel well at work, I put on a mask just to protect other people, um, just in 00:30:00case, and nobody wants the flu or a cold either. So, we were maskers, and we--mostly it was just the not going out, which was, again, not who we were.

BRINTON: --(laughs)-- Did you do any of the things like, um, like wiping off the groceries while they were coming into the house? No?

BLACKWELL: Having a mother in healthcare helped kind of alleviate some of that. Like, there was a lot of, "That doesn't even make sense. Let's not." --(laughs)--

BRINTON: That is actually--that's a nice perspective to have. Did you rely on her for maybe some of the--

BLACKWELL: Oh, yeah. When it was time to reopen the library, I wrote up my entire plan and I took it to my mother because, again, she was the chief clinical officer. She was over all the patient care aspects of our hospital, and I took it to her and I handed it to her and I said, "Think about it like it's a surgery room. Where are my gaps? Where am I letting germs through?" 00:31:00And she did. She read through. She gave me some suggestions on what to do to make sure that we were being as careful as possible during that whole time. When I was at Calvert City, we had a couple, the Straders (??), that were in their nineties, and they were the sweetest people you would ever m--I mean, they were so kind, so sweet, and they would read romance novels together. It was just--they were precious. And so my whole time, every time I did something, I was like, "How do we keep the Straders alive? --(Brinton laughs)--Because I know they will be in here the day we open, and how do we keep them alive?" So, between that mindset and then my mom always looking over everything and making sure we were staying as sterile as possible, um, I felt more confident probably than others about what we were doing during that time.

BRINTON: Did she also help you--or maybe you didn't need any help--with, uh, learning about the vaccine and, and figuring out whether or not you 00:32:00felt safe with that?

BLACKWELL: No, we just all said we would do it--(laughs)--and we did. Uh, we di--you know, there really wasn't a lot of discussion in our household about it. It was like, "Oh God, thank God, the, the vaccine's here, let's go. Get on the list as soon as you can."

BRINTON: And then once, once you were vaccinated, is that maybe when you, uh, stopped your kids having NTI, let them go on back to school?

BLACKWELL: So that was, um--I believe it was March of 2021 when I got my vaccine. Um, that was before it was super open wide, public, anybody could get it. But after the only healthcare and--um, so in between that window. And so, we started slowly with going out masked, you know, maybe just, like, two of us and having a meal--

BRINTON: --um-hm.

BLACKWELL: --outside somewhere. Uh, and so it wasn't until the fall that the kids went back to school, but that, that summer, we were able--we did a little bit more, um, you know, in terms of going out, and going out 00:33:00to eat, or our vacations. You know, we had a little more interaction with humans on then, not just walking through the woods.

BRINTON: Do you, do you remember where you were when you first heard about the coronavirus?

BLACKWELL: I don't remember that. I do remember when we were packing to go to Disneyland, I made sure that I had hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes in my bag for the park because they were talking about a virus that was spreading from, uh, China, and I was like, "Well, if we're going to California, we're going to be much closer." So--and I remember not on out flight over, but when we landed at LAX, there were people in masks, and it was the first time in my life that I had seen people in public wearing a mask. I mean, I'd seen people in hospitals wear them, but not in an airport. And it was a little weird 00:34:00because I still thought this was, like, the bird flu scare or any of those other virus scares that we have had many times over my adult life. Um, s--but I do remember being like, "Oh, well, yeah, let's make sure we disinfect our hands and wipe off the table before we sit down and eat, you know, at Disney," and--

BRINTON: --so at that point, you didn't have any idea that it was going to become--do you remember when you first thought to yourself, like, "This is, this is different. This is going to change things"?

BLACKWELL: Um, I am part of our health coalition in Marshall County, and they called a special meeting, and they started talking about the measures that they would take, and one of my former library kids had done a semester abroad in Italy, and he had been sent home from Italy. They'd, like, kicked him 00:35:00out of the country, and there were people very upset that he was in Marshall County even though he was isolating at home. And that's when I was, I was like, "Oh, this is different. This is, this is getting close." It took, it took a really long time for Marshall County to have its first case of COVID, so it--for a long time, it just kind of felt like you were sitting there, waiting for it to come in.

BRINTON: Do you remember when the first case came to Marshall County?

BLACKWELL: Not specifically. I remember they had a few cases at a church in Murray first that a lot of Marshall County people attended, and so we assumed that, "Okay, it's going to be in Marshall any time now." I remember that moment, but I do not remember the first, like, "Okay, there's definitely a positive case here."

BRINTON: How did you feel about the community measures that were 00:36:00meant to keep you safe, like the mandates, um, the shutting down of things? And then the reopening, and then maybe the shutting down again?

BLACKWELL: Um, being a person who had to make those tough decisions, I felt a lot of empathy with those in that position. I think I was way more understanding than other people who have never had to be in a position like that where you're making a decision that's going to affect the life and the outcome for others. So, you know, sometimes it was frustrating, especially when I felt like we were not getting enough information specifically for libraries. But I was never one of the people that was angry that it was happening or defiant or overlooking it. Um, I, I followed the rules as they were given to me, which is a very librarian thing to do--(Brinton laughs)--, and, um, just really, really 00:37:00empathized with those who were having to make that call.

BRINTON: Did you feel like they were making efficient decisions? Or effective?

BLACKWELL: I, I do. I think they did the best they could with what they had because a lot of people saw it as, "Well, they're changing what they're saying every other day." But the information they were getting was changing every other day, and they can't help that. --(laughs)-- And you have to make do the best you can with the information you have been given, and I think that, uh, Andy and the team there in Frankfort really did do the best they could with what they had.

BRINTON: Did they make you feel safe?

BLACKWELL: You know, everybody remembers--I think you guys called it, like, five o'clock with An--it came on at 4:00 for us--(laughs)--because there's a time zone difference--

BRINTON: --interesting--

BLACKWELL: --in Kentucky. Um, but I remember, you know, those days 00:38:00when I was in the library, you know, being like, "Oh, it's four o'clock," and put it up on one of my computer screens, and it did. It was, like, not only did it make you feel safer, it made you feel more connected because you weren't the only person going through this. We were all going through this, and I--it, i--you know, it sounds almost hokey now, but, "We're all in this together," really did resonate at the time.

BRINTON: Do you think that that helped to alleviate any of the, the mental stress or the depression that you were experiencing?

BLACKWELL: Um, you know, it's really hard to have perspective on mental health when you're in the middle of a crisis--

BRINTON: --um-hm.

BLACKWELL: --so I'm not certain. Um, I don't know. --(laughs)--

BRINTON: You mentioned the governor, and then you were on the, the coalition. Were those the primary sources you were using to get information?

BLACKWELL: Um, well, as a librarian, I was doing as much research as I could. Um, I was reading CDC [editor's note: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] sites. I was reading WHO--you know, World Health Organization sites. Um, I was trying to educate myself on just how viruses work in general. It's, it's the librarian coping mechanism. --(both laugh)-- When you don't understand something and it's upsetting to you, you just research the heck out of it. Um, and so, I was, I was pulling information from a lot of different places and finding that most of the time, the most trusted resources were matching up.

BRINTON: Did you generally trust your sources? Or were--was there ever a time where you're getting information that you, you were hesitant about?

BLACKWELL: Um, well, because if you look at a wide variety of sources, there was always some information out there that was not great. And also, 00:40:00information became outdated very quickly. You know, you would see somebody post something and say, "Oh, they're saying this, but ah-ha!" You'd be like, "Well, if you would look at the date, that was three weeks ago, and our--what we've learned since then has counteracted that headline." But--not to be cocky, but I felt confident enough in my abilities to, um, understand resources, and how to discern which ones were reliable enough.

BRINTON: And I suppose as, as the library, that that's what you're teaching other people as well, so.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Um, I did even a thing for my staff. We did, like, a little webinar type thing, and I was like, "Okay, we are going to talk about evaluating your resources because this is important that we be the ones that know how to do this," and we went through the CRAAP [editor's note: Currency, 00:41:00Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose] method and talked--you know, it was, like, this two-hour thing to make sure that my staff was able to look at a resource and be able to determine whether or not it could be reliable.

BRINTON: Did you ever have patrons come in and ask you for help with that sort of research?

BLACKWELL: No, I find that people really just want to go ahead and believe whatever they've read on Facebook and do not want the education to figure out whether or not it's correct.

BRINTON: Is there anything that you wish had been handled differently as far as the dissemination of that information to the public and to the working officials?

BLACKWELL: I just wish--you know, I wish that we had had that lesson on--(laughs)--reference checking before it all happened. I wish we'd had that opportunity, that it would've gone a little slower so that we could 00:42:00have--but I think that's where a lot of the distrust came from is because information was constantly changing, and it was almost like in a way they were giving us information too quickly. Like, sometimes I felt like maybe you should hold this until you're certain that that's what you mean, you know? Maybe run another test or two. And I understand what they were doing was they were trying to save as many lives as possible and thought this new piece of information might do--may--might accomplish that. But I think if information had been held maybe a bit, if the panic had been lessened for those--the scientists and the virologists and whomever was, you know, getting that information out, if they would have calmed down a bit, taken some time, gathered their statement, make sure that, "Okay, what I am giving you is as accurate as we can get," 00:43:00you know, that probably would have stopped some of that misinformation that became very rampant in the summer of 2020.

BRINTON: Outside of your patrons, um, were you able to help any of your friends, or--you said you didn't really have extended family. Were you able to help them understand the information or at least look at it more critically?

BLACKWELL: Um, my group of friend a're pretty nerdy, so--(laughs)--it wasn't really necessary. Uh, actually, one of my friends was sending me daily graphs and PowerPoint--or not PowerPoints--spreadsheets that--(laughs)--he created with the information that was coming out. Uh, so, so we were just pretty nerdy about it all the way around.

BRINTON: A nice bubble of informed people.

BLACKWELL: It is. It's, it's--you know, we talk a lot these days about, you know, how we all create these bubbles, but sometimes it's nice to be in a bubble.

BRINTON: Um, th--uh, speaking of being in a bubble, I just wanted to 00:44:00ask about your kids. Were there any--since they were at home, um, and they weren't interacting with their friends as much, did they miss any of their life experiences? Is there anything that they--other than just general social interaction?

BLACKWELL: Um, it was just little things, like, um, the youngest one had wanted to play softball that summer and didn't get a chance, and, uh, we'd kept the oldest in piano until she turned ten, and we told her, "When you turn ten, you can quit piano and start dance." Well, then she had to wait two more years to start dance, which was very disappointing for her. So little things like that. Um, but in other ways, I do think that they learned other skills. They would FaceTime with friends and play these elaborate Barbie games and such 00:45:00through Zoom or FaceTime or whatever that required an amazing amount of creativity and, like, you know, they would do the camera movement to kind of make it like a movie, and I--it was just--so there was a balance. You know, they lost out on some things, but they really did have these unique experiences that I think that they'll be telling their kids about, you know. Like, "Oh yeah, I used to play Barbie via FaceTime," you know? --(laughs)--

BRINTON: Do you think that the kids have learned anything from sort of going through such a challenging time at such a young age?

BLACKWELL: Oh, I think we will be studying the impact of COVID on Generation Z for the rest of our lives and beyond. I, I think it has completely changed the mindset of an entire generation, and Generation Alpha, them, them especially maybe even. I think that's why we have so many toddlers and preschoolers coming into the library because those children in those very, very early 00:46:00years had no interaction with anybody outside their household. And so now their families are wanting to give them social skills and stuff, and so they're--(laughs)--like, they're at the library at everything we offer, which is amazing, but I do wonder, like, how, how does that impact? How does that--you know, you go from that--maybe the time you were two until you were four not really seeing anybody else, and then all of the sudden, you're with--b--I--I think it's a fascinating thing to think about, but I think we have no idea yet.

BRINTON: Do you see any of those differences in your patrons at the library? I know you said you were once a teen librarian. Can you see that there are those differences?

BLACKWELL: You know, I hear it from the teachers a lot, that there's definitely a delay in social skills. I'm not sure that I notice it personally in the library, though, and I think it's mostly because it's a completely different setting, and I think part of it may be that in schools, there's a 00:47:00very defined way. Like, you sit in that seat, you don't talk while the teacher's talking, you know? Where in libraries, everything's much more loosey-goosey, and--(laughs)--so we--you know, if they're nonconforming, that's--a lot of the kids that come into the library even before COVID were nonconforming, and therefore that doesn't seem different to us, and also they don't have to fit into a box when they're there.

BRINTON: Does the library act as kind of a safe space for--

BLACKWELL: --it is--

BRINTON: --for nonconformists?

BLACKWELL: --absolutely. Absolutely. When I was a teen librarian, I mean, we always--we were like, "Oh, yup, we're the weird kids." Like, I even included myself in that group. Um, but they were. They were the kids that didn't really fit in other places, and they fit together.

BRINTON: Do you think that that has returned to a baseline where the library can provide those things for the, the young people again? I know you're seeing a different kind of group of people come in.

BLACKWELL: Yeah. I mean, I think the library will always be there. We 00:48:00say libraries are for everyone. That is one of my biggest things, um, and I am constantly talking to my staff about, like, how when a person walks through that door, you treat them the same. It does not matter if they're unhoused or if they're the mayor. It does not matter if they have the best clothes on or if they're a little smelly. It doesn't matter if they're wearing a Black Lives Matters t-shirt or a Confederate flag hat. We treat them the same, and that same is with respect and kindness and the desire to help. And that is very attractive for people who do not normally get that in their lives, where they go other places and they are not treated with respect. They are not treated with kindness, and they're not--have people who are very--they're, they're very willing to help them. And so those type people do tend to gravitate 00:49:00towards a library because that is one place where they can go in and feel like they belong.

BRINTON: So, that's, that's a nice transition, actually, because I also wanted to ask about--um, 2020 was also this time of really intense political, social tumult, and there were, there were deaths in Minneapolis and Louisville. Um, were you impacted at all by the racial tension and the protests that were going on in the cities during that time?

BLACKWELL: I mean, I was impacted emotionally. That was a horrible time, and it was hard things to see on social media or television or wherever it was you were getting your news, just really hard things to see, hard things to hear people you cared about saying on social media. That was very difficult, um, and, you know, upsetting for a lot of us. There was also some things where you 00:50:00were like--where you saw hope and, um--Marshall County has a reputation that is not necessarily a great one. We do a lot of things amazingly well. We are--but we are also known as a sundown town, and, um, we did have a Black Lives Matter rally on our court square, and it went lovely, and there was no major conflict, and it was just--that was hopeful, you know? In a place where this--probably even ten years ago, that would not have been imagined, that we did turn that corner and, um--and again, I think people all around Western Kentucky were kind of holding their breath, expecting the worst, and to see your community show up and act how you know that they are in their heart was a lovely 00:51:00experience. --(laughs)--

BRINTON: Um, for anybody who may not know, can you tell me what a sundown town is?

BLACKWELL: Um, it--you know, it goes back into the '50s, where it's--you can pass through if you are a person of color, but do not be here when the sun goes down. Uh, Marshall County is 99.2 percent white, I believe. It still is. And not--I do not think it is so much the attitudes that currently exist. It is the memory of what maybe was there before.

BRINTON: You said there was the BLM protest, uh, in town, or event.

BLACKWELL: Yeah.

BRINTON: Um, was it, was it people mostly from Marshall County, or was it--

BLACKWELL: --it was led by--

BRINTON: --outsiders coming in as well--

BLACKWELL: --outsiders--

BRINTON: --um-hm.

BLACKWELL: --mostly because, again, we do not have a large Black population, and it kind of, um--you don't--it's maybe not a good look for--(laughs)--um, the leaders of something like that to be white per--people 00:52:00during--but yes, mostly Marshall County. Um, I did not attend because it was the height of COVID and I was not comfortable in large groups, even outside. But I did watch people's live feeds the whole time, and, um, and yes, most of the faces were very familiar.

BRINTON: That make you feel a little--make you feel good about your community?

BLACKWELL: Yes, because I love my community. I would not still be there--I would not be working as hard as I am for my community if I did not love it. And so I--to me, it wasn't so much surprising that our community was like that. I was grateful that we were able to show who we really are to a wider audience, in a way.

BRINTON: That, that com--that combination of sort of the bad news about the killings that were happening, and then COVID, did that, did that 00:53:00combination weigh on you, um, more than either one might have?

BLACKWELL: Oh, I think so, definitely. I mean, it--it was j--it was very hard that summer. That was just a very difficult summer, and part of me knew that, like, I needed to get off Twitter. --(laughs)-- But I couldn't. I could not look away, i--you know? And, and it was. Every time you opened it and you read through, like, you could feel yourself just becoming heavier, um, and it was a very hard time because it was that combination.

BRINTON: Were you ever able to check out from the news a little bit and give yourself a timeout?

BLACKWELL: When I would go on hikes. --(both laugh)-- Maybe I should go on hikes again.

BRINTON: Oh no.

BLACKWELL: I probably need--although Twitter is not what it once was and not nearly as addicting, um, you know, maybe some hikes are--should be in 00:54:00my future to just unplug for a little bit.

BRINTON: --(laughs)-- I know you said there were some familiar faces in the, the BLM crowd. Did any of those political, social tensions impact your personal life, your personal relationships?

BLACKWELL: Um, so some of the political stuff did. A family member had made a post that was just very uninformed and also horribly misspelled --(Brinton laughs)-- and really bad punctuation, so I pointed out all those things, and they unfriended me. --(laughs)-- You know, that sort of thing. And normally I just let that stuff slide, but it was just, like, you know, again, we were--it was just so much all the time, and it was, like, that snapping point of, "Okay, first of all, that's three misspelled words. That's--comma, why is it even there? And you can prove every piece of this super easy." You know? 00:55:00And probably shouldn't have, but I--yeah, it did create some tensions between me and a cousin there for a while.

BRINTON: The onslaught got to you.

BLACKWELL: Yeah, yeah. You know, I, I have a feeling most of us, no matter where we lie on that political spectrum, um, or social spectrum had a breaking point during somewhere in there, and they said things that they normally would not have in a way they normally would not have and regretted it later.

BRINTON: That year could not have been designed any better to bring people to their breaking point.

BLACKWELL: Yeah. Yeah, and it was--you know, in looking back--I mean, '21 was hard and '22 was still pretty difficult, but 2020, it was a creature all of its own because so much came together all at once. And we were in an election cycle, and it was a rough election cycle. Uh, it was a lot.

BRINTON: Did you talk about any of those things with your kids, where you--did you have open conversations with them?

BLACKWELL: I do. I am very big in sharing information and, um--so sometimes my kids probably know more than they should about some subjects, but I don't--I think it's better for me to have a frank discussion with them about w--how I feel and what the facts are of this situation than for them to get the information from another source that is not as reliable.

BRINTON: And how were they? Did they, did they have any sort of emotional reactions to all the things that were going on?

BLACKWELL: Um, so when the Black Lives Matter thing happened on our court square, the person whose livestream I was watching babysat my children, and at first I was a little nervous. I was like, "Oh, but what if 00:57:00things get ugly? I don't want to--them to see something happen to her."

BRINTON: Um-hm.

BLACKWELL: But once I realized that everything was going to go fine, um, we sat and watched it together, and they asked questions, and you could see, like, if you really want to know where to stand on an issue, like, explain it to a child in just bare facts and see how they react. And when they're like, "I'm sorry, what? --(laughs)-- You know. Um, what happened?" And, you know, that's when you're like, "Okay, that, that's where we go with this." Like, because they're--there's no artifice in how they're going to react. So they were--I mean, they were angry. They wanted to go out and be on the streets by the end of it. They were like, "We can drive there in five minutes." --(Brinton laughs)--And I was like, "Yeah, we're still in COVID. --(laughs)-- And you're still a little young for this in my opinion." So--but yeah, they, they, they understood what was going on, and, um, you know, we talked about 00:58:00election stuff a lot, about, you know, the different issues and stuff, and they had opinions on who should win and, uh, were very interested when the results came in many days later.

BRINTON: Right? --(Blackwell laughs)-- Oh, I forgot.

BLACKWELL: Yeah, that was--I mean, that was a rough time too, right?

BRINTON: Yup. Yup.

BLACKWELL: We had an election and we still didn't know when--uh, it was a bad year.

BRINTON: Yes, it was a bad year. Was Marshall County impacted by any of the natural disasters that happened? So, one, one more thing for the community to go through.

BLACKWELL: Yeah. So also we were coming off of--2018 was a deadly school shooting in Marshall County. We had two students die, and, oh, it was, like, eighteen more injured, um, and hundreds traumatized because it was in a crowded area of the school that morning. And so we were coming directly off of that into COVID, and then December '21--December 10, 2021, we had the 00:59:00tornado come through. Um, we--so, you know, it kind of leveled downtown Mayfield and then came straight into Marshall County, went through some rural areas, took out a lot of houses in those rural areas, and then out on the lake, there was a community that literally looked like it had been thrown into a blender. Nothing stood--no houses, no trees, nothing. And, um, so yeah, we've--we feel like we've survived trauma event after trauma event. We even had another active shooting in the last couple years in which a police officer was shot outside of the sheriff's department, and it's been a lot for our community. And what I've learned from it is that our community keeps showing up. You would 01:00:00think at some point, we would say, "I'm tired. I've done this how many times now?" But we don't. We keep showing up to help whoever it is that needs the most help.

BRINTON: Do you think the community has grown or learned anything from experiencing those tragedies plus the COVID pandemic?

BLACKWELL: I think we are more prepared for another one than most communities. You know, we've done it a couple of times now. And so, we've--you know, we have--we know who to call. We know where to go. We know--you know? Like, we live on the fault line. --(laughs)-- We joke often. "So when, when is that earthquake coming, you know?"

BRINTON: Must be due.

BLACKWELL: It is due. And so--but I know when the earthquake happens where I need to be, where I need to get--you know, if I'm one of the people who are lucky enough to be able to get supplies, where to take those supplies. I already know. I already know the whole process. --(laughs)-- I'm ready.

BRINTON: Is there anything that you personally would do differently if--maybe not if we had to do it again, but if something similar happened again in the future?

BLACKWELL: I don't, I don't know, because the fact that we just made it through, um, the fact that my staff all made it through and never once did we have s--a moment where we felt like we were putting ourselves in mortal danger or, you know, um, we worried about things, but we never felt truly as if we were being overlooked. I don't think any of my staff did. I think even though it was hard decisions, I think I made the right ones.

BRINTON: Perfect. I'm going to ask you one last thing before we go. 01:02:00Is, is there anything that you feel you personally have learned, whether it's about your community or about yourself from living through all of this?

BLACKWELL: I think what I personally learned was to ask for help the moment I realize I need it, even if--because I th--I think a lot of us were slow to ask for help because we knew everybody was in the same boat. Like, "What makes me so special that I get help when we all feel the same?" Um, but we didn't all have to feel the same. There, there are ways, even in the darkest of times, to get help for mental health, and I hope everybody learned that during that time, that it's okay to reach out and be like, "I am not okay," when you're not. Um, and my community, I learned that they're going to continue to surprise me 01:03:00over and over again, you know? Like, when you, when you think, "We're surely going to have somebody come in and throw a fit over having to wear a mask," and then they don't, you know? And when you see the things people were doing to help each other out, you know, leaving packages at people's doors or, you know, whatnot. Like, there is always dark sides of things, and 2020 was filled with them, but there was also just opportunities for people to shine, and it was really nice to see those moments.

BRINTON: All right. Tammy, thank you so much for coming--

BLACKWELL: --thank you--

BRINTON: --in to do this, it's been lovely to talk to you.