Heinrich Reacts to Trump’s Firing of Librarian of Congress

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch, released the following statement reacting to President Trump firing Dr. Carla Hayden from her position as the Librarian of Congress:

“President Trump fired our nation’s Librarian, Dr. Carla Hayden, by email at 6:56pm tonight, taking his assault on America’s libraries to a new level.

“Over the course of her tenure, Dr. Hayden brought the Library of Congress to the people, with initiatives that reached into rural communities and made the Library accessible to all Americans, in person and online.

“While President Trump wants to ban books and tell Americans what to read – or not to read at all, Dr. Hayden has devoted her career to making reading and the pursuit of knowledge available to everyone.

“Be like Dr. Hayden.”

Email from the Trump Administration terminating Dr. Carla Hayden from her position as the Librarian of Congress, May 8^th, 2025.

BACKGROUND:

Dr. Carla Hayden was sworn in as the 14th Librarian of Congress on September 14, 2016. Dr. Hayden was nominated to the position by President Barack Obama on February 24, 2016, and her nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate later that year on July 13.

The first woman and first African American to lead the national library, Dr. Hayden’s work to connect all Americans to the Library of Congress led to a redefinition and modernization of the Library’s mission: to engage, inspire and inform Congress and the American people with a universal and enduring source of knowledge and creativity.

During her tenure, Dr. Hayden has prioritized efforts to make the Library and its unparalleled collections more accessible to the public. Through her social media presence, events and activities, she has introduced new audiences to many of the Library’s treasures – from Frederick Douglass’ papers, to the contents of President Abraham Lincoln’s pockets on the night of his assassination, to James Madison’s crystal flute made famous by Lizzo.

By investing in information technology infrastructure and digitization efforts, she has enabled the American people to explore, discover and engage with more with this treasure trove of America’s stories maintained by the Library of Congress. With the support of a grant from Mellon Foundation, in 2021, Dr. Hayden launched the Of the People initiative, which is creating new opportunities for more Americans to engage with the Library and add their perspectives to the Library’s collections. The initiative has three programs that invest in community-based documentarians; fund paid internships and fellowships to engage the next generation of librarians, archivists and knowledge workers; and invite underserved communities and institutions to create digital engagements with Library collections.

Prior to her current role, Dr. Hayden was the CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland, since 1993. She was the deputy commissioner and chief librarian of the Chicago Public Library from 1991 to 1993, an assistant professor of library and information science at the University of Pittsburgh from 1987 to 1991 and library services coordinator for the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago from 1982 to 1987. She began her career with the Chicago Public Library as the young adult services coordinator from 1979 to 1982 and as a library associate and children’s librarian from 1973 to 1979.

Dr. Hayden was president of the American Library Association from 2003 to 2004. In 1995, she was the first African American to receive Library Journal’s Librarian of the Year Award in recognition of her outreach services at the Pratt Library, which included an after-school center for Baltimore teens offering homework assistance and college and career counseling. Hayden received a B.A. from Roosevelt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago.

Among her numerous civic and professional memberships and awards, Dr. Hayden is an elected member of the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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