Carla Hayden

Bio:
Dr. Carla Hayden (born Carla Diane Hayden on Aug. 10, 1952 in Tallahassee, Florida) is an American librarian. After graduating Roosevelt University, she enrolled in the University of Chicago’s Graduate Library School. She would graduate with her master’s and doctorate degrees in Library Science. From 1970 to 1980, she worked in several positions in the Museum of Science and Industry, as well as the Chicago Public Library. She served as the library services coordinator for Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry up until 1987 and briefly taught as an Assistant Professor of Library Science at the University of Pittsburgh She returned to Chi-town to work as a children’s library at the Chicago Public Library. In 1993, she was appointed as the director of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore and from 2003-2004, she served as head of the American Library Association. During her ALA tenure, she clashed with then-Attorney General John Ashcroft due what she perceived as the PATRIOT Act’s overreaching powers when it came to citizen’s library records. Her outspoken fight for privacy led to Ms. Magazine naming her 2003 Woman of the Year. In Feb. 2016, President Barack Obama nominated Carla to be the next Librarian of Congress. In July 2016, the Senate confirmed her nomination and on Sept. 14, 2016, she was sworn in, becoming the first African American and first woman to hold the position.

Best Known For:
Dr. Carla Hayden is best known as a librarian and for being both the first woman and the first African American to lead the Library of Congress.

Personal Life:
While working in Chicago, Carla became friends with Barack and Michelle Obama. She was named Librarian of the Year in 1995. She received the President’s Medal from Johns Hopkins University in 1998, the Joseph W. Lippincott Award in 2013 and the Jean E. Coleman Library Outreach Lecture award in 2015.