On Tuesday, May 25, Publishers Weekly will host the first ever US Book Show, featuring over 100 speakers, including Oprah Winfrey, Anthony Doerr, Ijeoma Oluo, Keanu Reeves and Steven Van Zandt.

The all-virtual US Book Show fills a vacuum in the publishing industry left when BookExpo ceased operations at the end of 2020 after canceling its live event in the wake of Covid-19.

On the show’s opening day, Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer, co-hosts with Sari Feldman an ambitious three-hour program, Libraries are Essential. Keynote speaker for the session is sociologist and bestselling author Eric Klinenberg.

“At PW, we see libraries and librarians as central to the book business. As many veteran BookExpo attendees will no doubt remember, librarians had to push hard for a place at BookExpo over the years,” Albanese says.

“More than that, we’re not just interested in collection librarians or librarians who come to buy books. With this program we wanted to present a broader view for the entire US Book Show audience of the work of libraries and the importance of that work,” he tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally.

“We cannot have a strong literary culture, we cannot have a thriving book business, without a strong, equitable, and inclusive society—and libraries are dedicated to that mission,” Albanese states.