As executive director of Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library, Hayden became the first African American named Library Journal's Librarian of the Year.
In 1995, while serving as executive director of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland, Carla Hayden was named Library Journal's "Librarian of the Year"—becoming the first African American to receive this prestigious national honor.
The award recognized Hayden's innovative leadership in modernizing library services, expanding access for underserved urban populations, and championing the public library as a vital community institution. Under her direction, the Enoch Pratt Free Library had begun implementing programs that addressed literacy, technology access, and community engagement in ways that set a national example.
This recognition was significant not only for Hayden personally but for the broader library profession, which had historically been slow to recognize and elevate Black leadership despite the crucial role libraries played in Black communities during and after the civil rights era. Hayden's selection signaled a shift toward greater representation in the highest echelons of American librarianship.
The honor also foreshadowed her subsequent decades of national leadership, including her presidency of the American Library Association and her eventual historic appointment as Librarian of Congress. It affirmed early on that Hayden was viewed by her peers as one of the most talented and forward-thinking figures in the field, someone capable of reimagining what public libraries could achieve for the communities they served.