IPG Publisher Summit 2020 Full Schedule

Even as we bemoan underwhelming turnout for local and national elections or the harm that a possible Census undercount could pose for many communities we stop short at making the connections between these calls for mass civic engagement and the encroachments on reading (print and digital) and on ubiquitous access to un-editorialized information, we are seeing all too frequently. Cases in several states have proposed restrictions on books and reading materials on “moral” or religious grounds; new legislation has been proposed that would take aim at libraries and library staff for making “age-inappropriate” materials available to children; and incarcerated individuals are seeing their access to books, magazines and the internet become subject to censorship or limited by exorbitant fees. In 2005 [King v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, 415 F.3d 634 (7th Cir. 2005)], the U.S. Supreme Court noted the First Amendment should be interpreted to extend to books and other reading materials, citing “freedom of speech is not merely freedom to speak; it is also freedom to read.” Join Tracie D. Hall, the newly appointed tenth executive director of the American Library Association as she reflect on why our nation’s democracy hinges on the act of and access to reading.

In February, Tracie D. Hall was appointed the American Library Association’s 10th executive director in its 143-year history. In her new role, Hall oversees the oldest and largest library association in the world, made up of 57,000 members and more than 200 staffers. Hall comes to the Association from the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation where she oversaw its Culture portfolio and has worked at Seattle Public Library, the New Haven (Conn.) Free Public Library, Hartford (Conn.) Public Library, and Queens (N.Y.) Public Library along with serving in other non- and for-profit leadership riles. She also previously worked at ALA in the early 2000s as director of the Association’s Office for Diversity and has served on advisory councils for the Institute of Museum and Library Services and for a variety of civic and philanthropic agencies. Hall is a native of Los Angeles and a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara, Yale University, and the University of Washington where she graduated from the Information School.

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11:10 am - 12:00 pm

Lara Alexander has worked at IPG since 2012 and in the role of Amazon account manager since 2015.

Kelly Peterson is Director of Digital Strategy at Independent Publishers Group, and brings 25 years of marketing and merchandising experience to her current role, helping all our IPG publishers maximize their eBook sales and marketing efforts at the major retailers.

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