President Obama announced his intent to nominate Carla Hayden as the 14th Librarian of Congress, positioning her to be the first woman and first African American in the role.
On February 24, 2016, President Barack Obama formally announced his intent to nominate Carla D. Hayden, then CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, to serve as the 14th Librarian of Congress.
The nomination was historic from the outset: if confirmed, Hayden would become both the first woman and the first African American to hold the position in the Library of Congress's more than 200-year history. She would also be the first professional librarian to hold the post in several decades, following a string of appointees from academic or political backgrounds.
The announcement was celebrated widely within the library and archival community, which had long advocated for a candidate with hands-on professional library experience to lead the institution. Hayden's decades of work in public libraries, her national leadership through the ALA, and her demonstrated commitment to expanding access to information made her an unusually well-qualified nominee.
The nomination process, however, would take nearly five months to reach confirmation, reflecting the broader political gridlock of the era. Nonetheless, the announcement itself was a watershed moment, signaling a serious commitment by the Obama administration to diversify leadership at the highest levels of federal cultural institutions and to modernize an office that oversaw the world's largest library.