Ashton To Retire from Denver PL After 20 Years

Denver city librarian Rick Ashton will retire next February 28 after a 20-year career at the library, which under his leadership won numerous accolades but has recently suffered budget setbacks. Ashton, 60, told LJ, “I'm not done in by any means, but I believe I have done what I can do. I have left a mark.”

Under Ashton's tenure, circulation at the Denver Public Library (DPL) has quadrupled and the library won a $91.6 million bond issue to build a new, 540,000 square foot Central Library and renovate and build new branches. In three of the past five years, DPL has been ranked first by Hennen's American Public Library Ratings among large libraries but this year was ranked third, based on FY03 statistics.

DPL, which saw an effort to form a library district hit a roadblock, now must focus on a new property tax, which has not yet been put on the ballot. A library press release acknowledged budgetary difficulties—the library faces a five percent cut in hours—but pointed to a new “planning effort to develop focused library service for Denver's changing and growing population.” That service, including outreach to Spanish-speaking library users, also has led to criticism from anti-immigration groups assailing the library's collection of fotonovelas (see News, LJ 9/15/05, p. 16).

Mayor John Hickenlooper said DPL “is a treasured fixture in our community, and for 20 years Rick Ashton has been its faithful guardian and advocate.” Ashton said he'd like “to sit back and reflect on things for a while. This kind of a job, the way I have pursued it, makes it very difficult to keep myself planted on a chair long enough to read a serious book in a quick enough way to make it useful.”

Ashton observed, “I think the public library in this country has a bright future. An immigrant country needs opportunities to find and connect people to what it means to be American.” (For the full interview with Ashton, go to www.libraryjournal.com.)