Scott Crawford Named New President and General Manager of AKJ Education, a Baltimore, MD-Based Wholesaler Serving Libraries/Schools with Quality Educational Materials

From an AKJ News Release:

Media Source, Inc. (“MSI”), a literacy solution provider to K-12 schools, public and school libraries, and higher ed institutions, announces the appointment of Scott Crawford as the new President & General Manager of AKJ Education, effective immediately.

With more than 25 years of experience in the educational book and content distribution space, including various leadership roles at Baker & Taylor, Crawford will lead AKJ Education, managing sales, marketing, collection development and curation, customer services, publisher relationships and supply chain for K-12 schools. “Amid a national literacy crisis, I am honored to join the MSI leadership team and to double down on our commitment to making sure that every child, parent, caregiver, teacher, librarian and school principal has access to a high-quality library of books. Evidence shows that access to a carefully curated collection of engaging texts improves reading comprehension, one key to solving this literacy crisis,” said Crawford. “With unmatched curation and book reviews capabilities, the deepest network of publisher relationships around, cutting-edge distribution capability and technology, and a team of professionals focused on delivering value-added services, AKJ Education offers K-12 schools and curriculum companies a truly differentiated, dependable, low cost, and friendly source of classroom libraries/books supply.”

Crawford most recently served as Vice President, Digital & Software at Baker & Taylor, a national full-service solution provider to the library market. Prior to that role, he spent five years working closely with the Follett School Solutions division while Baker & Taylor was owned by Follett. Scott also spent eight years as the Vice President and General Manager of collectionHQ, a Glasgow, Scotland, based library analytics SaaS platform. He holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee, serves on the Board of the Phoenix Public Library Foundation and is a member of the American Library Association and the Public Library Association.

“Scott brings great experience and leadership in the book & content distribution business. His expertise in the industry is unmatched and we are thrilled that he is joining our executive leadership team,” said Etienne Veber, Chief Executive Officer of MSI. “Together with Eric Olson (Junior Library Guild – President/General Manager), Rebecca T. Miller (Media – Group Publisher/General Manager), and Rick Cabrera (CFO), I am looking forward to accelerating our growth strategy and continuing to build on our Mission to become a literacy solution provider to school districts and libraries around the country.”

Filed under: Libraries, Management and Leadership, News, Public Libraries, Publishing, School Libraries