Peter Coyl is the Library Director and CEO of the Sacramento Public Library, California’s fourth-largest public library system, comprising 28 branches serving Sacramento County. He began his tenure on January 3, 2022 — a return to the City where he received his first library card at the system’s Arcade branch.

Over more than two decades in the library profession, Coyl has built a record as one of the field’s most visible intellectual freedom advocates, leading the Freedom to Read Foundation through landmark First Amendment litigation, authoring a unanimous ALA Council resolution on intellectual freedom, and representing the profession before Congress and in national media.

Before Sacramento, he served as Director of the Montclair Public Library in New Jersey, as Branch Manager and District Manager at the Dallas Public Library, and as a librarian at an international school in Taiwan. He is a member of the ALA Executive Board (2024–2027) and a past President of the Freedom to Read Foundation.