Leading the Library Response

Dr. Carla Hayden

Dr. Carla Hayden was sworn in as the 14th U.S. Librarian of Congress on September 14, 2016. Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to lead the national library, was nominated to the position by President Barack Obama on February 24, 2016, and her nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on July 13.

Prior to her latest post she served, since 1993, as CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland. Hayden was nominated by President Obama to be a member of the National Museum and Library Services Board in January 2010 and was confirmed to that post by the Senate in June 2010. Prior to joining the Pratt Library, Hayden was deputy commissioner and chief librarian of the Chicago Public Library from 1991 to 1993. She was an assistant professor for Library and Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh from 1987 to 1991. Hayden was 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.

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.

Kate Zwaard

Kate Zwaard is the associate librarian for Discovery and Preservation Services at the U.S. Library of Congress. A strategic leader with 20 years of experience in government and libraries, Zwaard leads more than 600 employees responsible for acquisitions, cataloging, preservation and discovery of Library collections. One of Zwaard’s early initiatives is spearheading the Library’s transition to the digital-forward and digitally enabled acquisitions model established in the Library’s Digital Collections Strategy.

During her tenure as the Library’s first director of digital strategy, Zwaard shepherded digital transformation across the institution, and authored the Library’s first Digital Strategy. Under Zwaard’s leadership, the Library launched the crowdsourcing program By the People, which invites the public to engage with and improve access to Library collections. Previously, Zwaard served as the first chief of National Digital Initiatives, where she launched LC Labs, the Library’s digital innovation team, which incubated popular experiments like Citizen DJ and Newspaper Navigator. Zwaard joined the Library in 2012 as a software engineering manager leading the development of IT systems used to manage digital collections. Before joining the Library, Zwaard played a key role in supporting the digital transformation of the U.S. Government Publishing Office.

Marie-Louise Ayres

Dr Marie-Louise Ayres FAHA was appointed Director-General of the National Library Australia in March 2017, having joined the Library in 2002. She has worked in research libraries for nearly 30 years, after completing a PhD in Australian Literature at the Australian National University. Dr Ayres is a Director of National and State Libraries Australasia (NSLA), having previously been a leader and participant in many NSLA projects, including NED, the National eDeposit service that was jointly developed by Australia’s national, state and territory libraries. She is the Chair of the Conference of Directors of National Libraries. Dr Ayres is an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.