Power 100: Carla Hayden

Carla Hayden
Librarian of Congress

A former Chicago children’s librarian who rose to become president of the American Library Association and to Baltimore’s extensive free restructure library network, Hayden’s appointment to head the nation’s largest repository of books and documents, and the world’s second- largest (after the British Library in London) represents a number of firsts. She is the first woman and first African American appointed to the post, and the first professional librarian in over 60 years.

The job has tended to go to distinguished scholars and philosophers.