David CookThe only thing wrong with Corinne Hill's travel schedule is that she's not doing enough of it.
Sure, the executive director of the Chattanooga Public Library went to Singapore. And Denmark. Three trips to Washington, D.C. Two visits to Seattle.
Good. Bon voyage. Godspeed.
That's exactly what Hill should be doing.
Yet ever since a recent city audit and headlines have revealed her global travel diary, which included improper trip reimbursements, public perception has shifted -- she's a librarian, not Rick Steves! -- as Hill and the public library have become something like a public enemy: wasting taxpayer dollars on extravagant please-pass-the-brie-trips.
"It feels like a witch hunt," said Hill.
(Books on witches can be found on the first and second floors of the library under call letters "WIT." They also have ebooks and audiobooks, if you prefer.)
In 2012, our city hired Hill to transform our library system -- "ugly, irrelevant, mismanaged," consultants said at the time -- into something dynamic, relevant and at-home in the 21st-century.
Two years later, voila.
Hill, who was named the 2014 Librarian of the Year, and her staff have found ways to attract those coveted demographics -- children, teens and tweens -- into our library, along with updating (3D printers, community gardens, free library cards to schoolkids) the downtown and other branches.
Circulation increased 24 percent in one year. More people are on the website. More patrons coming through the door, especially younger ones.
Our public library system has become the envy of many American cities and known throughout the world.
"Am I traveling? You bet," Hill said. "The board loves the idea that we are doing stuff people around the world are interested in. We went from a sleepy little library to a place recognized worldwide."
People, please. These trips aren't caviar; they're investments in the social fabric of our community. Hill and her staff travel for two reasons: to learn what others are doing, and to tell others what we're doing.
Yes, there were bookkeeping errors and multiple reimbursements that deserve scrutiny and correction. That's why City Auditor Stan Sewell has a job. That's also why one library employee lost her job and another was suspended.
"We made mistakes," said Hill. "We didn't have good procedures in place. That has been resolved."
The library's travel budget is minuscule -- less than 1 percent of the overall budget, Hill said. Funding for trips also comes from two private entities. Staff members are getting more chances to travel.
But really, this is not about money.
It's about values.
In our age of anti-intellectualism, we have forgotten how to value learning or books or public spaces. We have forgotten that public libraries perform a democratic function, the open place where curiosity, knowledge and creativity come to roost.
So we miss the point. We eyeball hotel expenses in Ann Arbor and Portland, as if the library staff didn't deserve to travel or that we don't need them to. Such criticism really indicts us, revealing a subtle bias against a life of the mind.
(Quick: Which would you rather see burn down -- the downtown library or Neyland Stadium?)
Hill's crime wasn't that she traveled the nation and world, it was that she did so as a public librarian -- a position that our society does not adequately value.
We ought to be cartwheeling proud: Our public library staff travels the nation and world, telling our story and learning from others.
That's not a disservice to taxpayers.
That's a gift.
Contact David Cook at dcook@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6329. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter at DavidCookTFP.