Former Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden spoke at the Free Library of Philadelphia Parkway Central Branch on Saturday night, where she sat down for a fireside chat with Ashley Jordan, president and CEO of the African American Museum in Philadelphia.

Hayden, both the first woman and the first Black person to head the Library of Congress, was fired by President Donald Trump on May 8 in a two-sentence email. 

In a conversation that touched on her career, her accomplishments and her abrupt dismissal, Hayden said she is hopeful about the future of public libraries and freedom of expression despite nationwide pushes for book bans and attacks on cultural institutions. 

“I’ve been able to be part of opening up the world to more people and to help them see themselves in the world and in the past, so they can do their future,” Hayden said. “And that is a wonderful thing to think about, that you’ve been part of … All of what we do in these types of organizations, that’s what we’re doing. We’re betting on the future. And so I was glad that I was able to do that at the Library of Congress.” 

In his introductory remarks, Kelly Richards, president and director of the Free Library of Philadelphia, said that Hayden has always been a “tireless advocate” for the library systems throughout her career. He said libraries are not just “repositories of knowledge” in a democratic society, but “vibrant centers of community life, education and inclusion.”

 “Libraries have a reputation for being a quiet place, but not tonight,” Richards said, as audience members gave Hayden and Jordan a standing ovation when they entered the stage. 

Earlier this month, Hayden spoke about her firing for the first time in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning’s Robert Costa. She addressed White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s comments that Hayden was fired because “there were quite concerning things that she had done at the Library of Congress in the pursuit of DEI and putting inappropriate books in the library for children.” 

Hayden told Costa she had never had any issue with the Trump administration or any previous presidential administration. She said Leavitt’s comments caused her to be “concerned that there might not have been as much of an awareness of what the Library of Congress does,” and said it was “puzzling” that terms like “inclusion” would be referred to in a negative light. On Saturday, she told the crowd it is important for people to “speak up” against book bans and other moves to limit freedom of expression and education. She also highlighted the importance of libraries, museums and other cultural institutions working together to uplift one another. 

“You don’t want to fall prey to dividing and saying, well, that’s just a library issue, or that’s just a museum [issue]” she said. “No, it’s a education, social fabric, infrastructure issue, and that’s what creates that safety net for people, and that opportunity net and lift for people when all of these organizations work together.” 

A librarian’s journey

Prior to her appointment to Librarian of Congress by President Barack Obama in 2016, Hayden served as the director for the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore for 23 years. During the unrest in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray in police custody in 2015, Hayden kept the libraries open even as most other institutions and stores shuttered their doors. 

As president of the American Library Association from 2003-2004, Hayden also gained national attention by defending library patrons’ right to privacy and refusing to allow the U.S. government blanket access to library records under the USA Patriot Act. 

Since her dismissal, Hayden has received support from her colleagues at the Library of Congress and from people across the country, she said. Even the employees at her local grocery store in Baltimore were “ready to go over to D.C.,” Hayden said with a laugh. 

Hayden also reflected on her nearly decade-long tenure as head of the Library of Congress, where she strived to make the library, whose primary purpose is to fulfill research requests for members of Congress, more accessible to the public. As “America’s library,” she said the institution contains some unexpected archives and artifacts, including the world’s largest collection of comic books and one of her personal favorites, the contents of Abraham Lincoln’s pockets on the night he was assassinated. 

“He had a button that came off with a jacket,” she said. “So think about that. A button comes up you’re going to put in your pocket, and that just epitomizes what seeing the real thing, humanizing these people that are iconic or legends, but they were real people, and you can see that, and you can imagine what it was like.”

She touted among her achievements a Thursday night “live at the library” event that featured activities and trivia, a soon-to-open orientation center that will aid visitors in navigating the library’s resources, and a planned youth center designed to help kids and young people understand how to do research and reference in an age of mis- and disinformation. 

Hayden also fondly recalled some of the star-studded moments that shed new light on the library’s importance, including a visit from singer, songwriter and musician Lizzo, who surveyed the library’s collection of flutes for hours, and later played President James Madison’s famous crystal flute onstage at a concert.  

Hayden said her own life shows how public libraries can have an impact on their communities.

“If you have patrons that you could find a book that will mean as much as ‘Bright April’ meant to me when I walked in that storefront, and saw a book with a little brown girl with two braids and everything, and I thought it was me,” she said. “You are serving the community that’s there. And even in a community that might not outwardly appear diverse, there’s diversity within that, age, family structure, all kinds of ways. So trying to match what you have to offer to the people who are coming in.”