Posted on August 10, 2019
Today's famous birthday is not just the first black female Librarian of Congress, she is the first female Librarian of Congress and the first African American Librarian of Congress!
Born in Florida on this date in 1952, Dr. Carla Hayden began her career in the Chicago Public Library, became the CEO of a library co-operative with 22 locations in Baltimore, served as the president of the American Library Association, and was nominated by President Barack Obama as the first professional librarian to become Librarian of Congress in more than 60 years.
Dr. Hayden is also considered an activist, involved in civil rights and freedom-of-speech/press issues. As head of the ALA, she made "Equity of Access" the theme and spoke out publicly against the Patriot Act. (The latter is supposed to be "patriotic," and was passed quickly after the 9/11 attacks, but it actually takes away some basic human rights from U.S. citizens in the name of fighting terrorism.)
The Librarian of Congress has some pretty big responsibilities in this massive research library - possibly the largest library in the world - a gathering of millions of print, audio, visual, and digital resources. The Librarian weighs in on copyright and fair use issues, determining whether particular works are subject to Digital Millennium Copyright Act prohibitions against copying. The Librarian also appoints the U.S. Poet Laureate and awards the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
I was curious about the point made about Dr. Hayden being the first professional librarian appointed for this job in more than 60 years. I checked out the occupations of past Librarians, and found that the most common occupations clustered around writing: there were journalists, authors, poets, and publishers / printers among the Librarians, the historian Librarian was also a writer, and the professor Librarian was also an author. Two lawyers became Librarians in the early days, and a doctor who was also a soldier was the Librarian during the Civil War. The very first Librarian of Congress used to be a political campaign manager (that's pretty random!), and, out of 13 Librarians, Dr. Hayden is only the third professional librarian.
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| All the previous Librarians of Congress have been white men, although the acting Librarian who took over when James Billington died, a law librarian named David Mao, is an Asian American man. |
