Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden will deliver the 2022 Windsor Lecture on Thursday, April 21, at 7:00 p.m. The lecture, which is co-sponsored by the University Library and Center for Advanced Study, will be held via Zoom, and advance registration is required.
In her presentation, "Engaging Library Users in a Pandemic and Post Pandemic World," Hayden will discuss inviting patrons to enter a library's front door and digital door and engaging a diverse library community both onsite and virtually.
Hayden was sworn in as the 14th Librarian of Congress on September 14, 2016. The first woman and first African American to lead the national library, Hayden 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.
Hayden previously served as CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland. She was deputy commissioner and chief librarian of the Chicago Public Library, where she began her career as a library associate and children's librarian. Her roles have also included serving as an assistant professor for library and information science at the University of Pittsburgh and as a library services coordinator for the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.
From 2003 to 2004, Hayden was president of the American Library Association. 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 offering homework assistance and college and career counseling for Baltimore teens. Hayden received a BA from Roosevelt University and an MA and PhD from the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago.
The Windsor Lecture honors the career of Phineas L. Windsor, who served as director of the University of Illinois Library and iSchool from 1909 to 1940. Gifts from alumni and friends provide generous support for this ongoing lecture series.