4-year-old becomes librarian in world’s largest facility

Daliyah Arana, who is from Gainesville, Georgia, joined Librarian of Con-gress Carla Hayden — who made history in 2016 when she became the first female and the first African-American to hold the position. 

Arana became the first-ever librarian for the day at the US Library of Congress on January 11, the ABC reported. 

Hayden and Arana sat in on meetings, met with library staff and roamed the many halls of the library. 

Arana also suggested that the library add whiteboards to the walls so that children could practice their writing, which library officials said they were considering. 

She has read over 1,000 books. 

Hayden tweeted photos of herself and Arana, saying “It was fun to have 4-year-old Daliyah Marie Arana of Gainesville, GA as ‘Librarian For The Day.’ She’s already read more than a 1,000 books.”  Arana read her first book, a picture book called Ann’s Big Muffin, on her own at the age of two years and 11 months. 

Around that time, her mother Haleema signed up Arana for the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten Programme, a programme that promotes read-ing for young kids, to keep track of just how many books her daughter managed to finish. 

Haleema decided to write to the Library of Congress to tell them about her daughter’s book-reading brilliance. They responded by inviting the entire family down to the library, and let Arana act as a librarian for the day. 

And she is loving it. “She just kept saying how the Library of Congress is her most favourite, favourite, favourite library in the whole wide world,” Haleema said. The Library of Congress now plans to invite other young book-lovers as ‘Librarians For The Day’ in the future.