From his office in Denver’s old downtown library, Rick Ashton used to hear the switchboard operators trying to explain how to find the city’s central branch.
“You could tell from what they were saying that the person on the other end couldn’t picture where it was,” Ashton said. “It was invisible.”
When Ashton officially retires today as library director, after 20 years of service, he will walk out of the highly visible, 540,000- square-foot Central Library he helped create, and he will leave behind a system that has seen a nearly fivefold increase in use during his tenure.
“That doesn’t happen anymore,” he said of the calls for directions. “Not now.”
It’s not only because Ashton oversaw the push for a library that is one of the city’s signature buildings. Rated three times as the top library in the country by the Hennen’s American Public Library Rating System and one of the worst by talk-radio moralists such as Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Ashton’s library system has often found itself at the center of public consciousness – if not controversy.
“I would say that the Denver Public Library has chosen to be in that position,” Ashton said. “We certainly all actually want, at times, to be lulled and entertained and soothed. But most of us want to be informed and challenged and engaged, and so we do all that.”
During his tenure, Ashton has dealt with several high-profile disputes. Last summer, the library system’s collection of racy Spanish-language fotonovelas prompted calls for Ashton’s resignation from the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform.
Radio personality Schlessinger, more commonly known as “Dr. Laura,” condemned Denver’s system on her list of “lewd libraries.” Looking back, Ashton said his moments in the spotlight of controversy – while not enjoyable at the time – have been appropriate.
“Part of it is our tradition,” he said. “It has really been … that way since the beginning in 1889. The very first city librarian, a man named John Cotton Dana – a culture hero – was kind of run out of town.”
For all the controversy, Ashton enjoys uniform respect from city officials. He came to Denver from Fort Wayne, Ind., with bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard University, Northwestern University and the University of Chicago, respectively. In 1990, he led a successful campaign for a $91.6 million bond issue that was critical to the Central Library expansion.
His system of dividing branch libraries into four styles – such as one with predominately popular books and another with mostly video offerings – is a national model. And he deftly handled tight financial times of the past few years.
“We see today that we have tremendously wonderful libraries,” City Councilwoman Peggy Lehmann said last week. “Not only are they wonderful, but they have kept up with the change so that they’ve moved from books to include … books, computers, VHS films, CDs and moving right along into the future.”
In 2003, Ashton was honored with the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation’s lifetime achievement award in Art and Humanities. Mayor John Hickenlooper declared July 20, 2005 – Ashton’s 20th anniversary – as Rick J. Ashton Day in Denver.
Last week, the City Council donned fake bow-ties (real ones are an Ashton fashion trademark) and passed a resolution honoring him for 20 years of service. Lehmann said the resolution was the first sponsored by every member of the council.
“What I think is really the lasting meaning of this,” Ashton said of the Central Library, “is that the library is no longer on the perimeter of public consciousness; it’s in the center. That seems like something someone would spend 20 years trying to do.”
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 303-820-1657 or gmerritt@denverpost.com.
