The Nomination of Carla Hayden is stuck, but you can help unstick it by sending your senator an email today!

The focus of determining the next leader for the Librarian of Congress, as it was when President Obama made his initial nomination, should be on finding the right professional for the job.  It should not be on upholding archaic and patriarchal customs.  This is particularly true when the Library of Congress has received scrutiny for being complacent and absent in failing to serve as a principal voice for libraries and librarians.  Additionally, much work and leadership is needed to help advance the institution in the areas of digitization, public awareness, use and overall management.

Dr. Carla Hayden, who currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland, earned her master’s and doctorate degrees in Library Science from the University of Chicago.  She has held her position as CEO of Enoch Pratt for over 20 years and successfully led the institution through many cultural, societal and budgetary shifts that impacted library relevance and use.  While doing so, she also thrived professionally, being elected by a body of her peers to serve as President of the American Library Association from 2003-2004. 

Despite her experience, qualifications and the remarkably high esteem for Dr. Hayden throughout the library profession, President Obama’s nomination of Dr. Hayden has not been uncontested.  There are those, though undoubtedly feeble and few, who believe that the nomination was primarily made to advance some political agenda and/or somehow disregard past precedent of Librarians of Congress being scholars.  Frankly, the assertion and promotion of this view is dismissive and, itself, disregards Dr. Hayden’s track record as a former professor, librarian and an executive library director.