Dr. Carla Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to lead the Library of Congress, was nominated to the position by President Barack Obama and sworn in as the 14th Librarian of Congress on September 14, 2016.
Since 1993, she had served as CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland. Prior to joining the Library, Dr. Hayden was deputy commissioner and chief librarian of the Chicago Public Library from 1991 to 1993. Previously, she was an assistant professor for Library and Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh and library services coordinator for the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. She began her career with the Chicago Public Library as the young adult services coordinator from 1979 to 1982, and as a library associate and children’s librarian from 1973 to 1979.
Dr. Hayden was nominated by President Obama to be a member of the National Museum and Library Services Board in January 2010. She was president of the American Library Association from 2003 to 2004. In 1995, she was the first African American to receive Library Journal’s Librarian of the Year Award in recognition of her outreach services at the Pratt Library, which included an after-school center for Baltimore teens offering homework assistance and college and career counseling.
Dr. Hayden received a BA from Roosevelt University and an MA and PhD from the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago.
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