The ALA presented Carla Hayden with honorary membership, its highest honor, recognizing her historic appointment and advocacy.
On June 26, 2017, the American Library Association presented Carla Hayden with honorary membership, the association's highest honor, reserved for individuals who have made outstanding contributions to librarianship and the broader cause of information access.
The recognition came less than a year after Hayden's historic swearing-in as the first woman and first African American Librarian of Congress, and it celebrated both that milestone and her long record of advocacy for equitable access to information, particularly for underserved communities.
Honorary membership in the ALA has historically been awarded sparingly, to figures whose careers exemplify the association's core values. Hayden's selection reflected the esteem in which she was held by her professional peers, many of whom had followed her career from her early days at the Chicago Public Library through her leadership of the Enoch Pratt Free Library and into her groundbreaking federal role.
The award also served to reinforce the symbolic importance of Hayden's appointment as Librarian of Congress within the profession itself, affirming that her ascension represented not just a political or historical milestone but a genuine triumph for the values of public librarianship—access, service, and intellectual freedom—that the ALA had championed for over a century.