As a pioneering literacy organization in Indonesia, Ikapi was involved in various dynamic policy making of Indonesian literacy , from the Old Order, New Order until the Reform period. Ikapi was also faced with hard times during the monetary crisis in 1998, leading to the emergence of reform demands within the national literacy. For more than seven decades Ikapi had fought for the interests of literacy actors, such as promoting reading interest through exhibitions, the removal of book tax, paper price control by the government, empowerment of human resource in the field of literacy, and the management of educational book commerce.

Ikapi positions itself as an active, progressive, critical and initative partner of the government, that offers solutions in addressing the problems surrounding national literacy, particularly that of educational books. Until today Ikapi has cooperated with various institutions and Ministries in Indonesia, such as the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud), including the Literacy and Language Development Board, the Indonesian National Library, and Kemendikbud’s national Book Committee, the Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf); the Ministry of Research and High Education (Kemenristekdikti); the Ministry of Religion (Kemenag); and the Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Kemenkominfo).

One of Ikapi’s significant involvements together with the Indonesian government was for organizing the 1^st National Literacy Congress in 1995. During the reform period, Ikapi also pushed for the application of the National Literacy Reform, leading to the establishment of the National Book Board. And then Ikapi also acted as a strategic partner of the government when Indonesia was chosen as the guest of honor in Frankfurt Book Fair in 2015.

Following the 2015 Frankfurt Book Fair, Ikapi was increasingly being involved in international book exhibitions, like the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and the London Book Fair, as well as exhibitions held in Asian and ASEAN countries. Ikapi supported the ease of access for Indonesian writers and publishers to take their works globally through their copyrights selling in various countries. From here we witness the significance of the government support in regards to promotional and cultural diplomacy projects through books.

The government’s support is also essential on national level. Ikapi has obtained a highly valuable support from Bekraf and the Kemendikbud for the 2018 Indonesia International Book Fair (IIBF), which served as the biggest literacy event in Indonesia. 2018 marked Ikapi’s 37^th literacy event since the establishment of the organization. Ikapi acknowledges that the problems and challenges of Indonesian literacy still need to be addressed through Ikapi’s initiatives and active role on national level. So Ikapi welcomes the implementation of Law No. 3 2017 About Literacy System, which was initiated by the Indonesian’s People’s Representative Council (DPR-RI) and supported by the government. The Law will become a new chapter in the effort to develop national literacy, which inevitably will put Ikapi as one of the agents of change within the literacy ecosystem.

As one of the responds to the issued Law No 3/2017 About Literacy System, particularly in regards to the mandate of quality guarantee, Ikapi together with Kemkominfo have initiated to set up the Indonesian Standard of the National Work Competition (SKKNI) in the Book Publishing Division which has been passed by the Indonesian Minister of Labor in 2018. SKKNI has become as the first standard of competition in Indonesia particularly in terms of book publishing. Ikapi wishes that in the future, literacy actors could be certified and expected to work in accordance to the literacy standard.

Ikapi is also actively involved in setting up the literacy standard initiated by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and the National Standard Board. It is paramount for literacy industry to also be implemented in accordance to the applied international standard.

Book publishing is included as one of Indonesia’s 16 potential creative industries. Even so, according to Bekraf, book publishing creative industry has contributed significant income following culinary and fashion industries. This is something to be proud of and comes with great expectation for the country’s future literacy industry. Today, with more than 1.950 publisher members spread in Indonesia’s 26 provinces, Ikapi aims to become a haven for the development of Indonesian literacy – and bring about creative literacy products to the world. In order to realize that aim, being a mother literacy organization, Ikapi also takes part in training literacy artisans including writers, translators, editors, illustrator and designers.

Ikapi also serves as an essential element in bridging the transfer of technology in the field of publishing, from analog to digital system. This is why Ikapi is calling its entire members to adapt in a digital ecosystem by adjusting the paradigm about content as the main power of book publishers. Ikapi also offers membership for digital/E-book publishers. It is hoped that Ikapi could also contribute in creating books of the future that could interact with the Z and Alpha generations.

As an independent organization, Ikapi had developed a number of business lines in responding to the literacy industry development. The first business line established was the Literacy Academy and the Indonesian Publishing (Alinea) that focuses in the area of training and short courses provisions in the field of writing and publishing. The second business line is the Borobudur Agency that works in the area of literacy agency, created to assist Indonesian publishers to sell their copyrights globally. Ikapi has also established the Ikapi Store as an online bookshop that bridges the trade of printed and digital books online.

After seven decades, Ikapi is has been headed by 14 of the best Indonesian men and woman in literacy. Today Ikapi is headed by Eng. Rosidayati Rozalina who was chosen in the 2015 National Work Meeting. Each of the chosen leaders always served as an agent of change in their own time.

The same is also done today. A new era has come, and Ikapi has recognized it since the beginning of the Internet penetration into the public lives. The new era is called as the Disruption Era where the industry world has come into the 4.0 Industry Revolution, which has altered the industry paradigm significantly. The revolution has of course influenced changes within the book industry.

Digital technology has made book publishing easier and cheaper, but the main power still lies on the creativity and innovation of the people, as in the literacy actors. Ikapi recognizes that soon a wave of change is coming, and it will come in the form of the rising of publishers managed by the Millenials. The world would witness so many surprising patterns in book publishing. The signs have already been seen earlier from the way the social media has influenced the effect of the selling of books.

Applications of stories such as Wattpadd has given birth to talented new writers. Online shops have made books easier to get. Information about books, writers, and how books are being published has become massively spread. The literacy world is no longer an unknown world, but it has turned into a world that influences lifestyle. Ikapi realizes the rapid changes that are taking place. The impression of an old and conservative organization must also be altered moderately during literacy events, in social media interactions, as well as Ikapi’s events that are oriented in the development of youth literacy. Ikapi plays a great role in embracing the entire society from different social backgrounds, education levels, and age, considering books are not published simply as intellectual products, but they are products that also hase their own generic characteristics.

A book is the window to the world. This classical jargon is still ever relevant until now. Ikapi has made those windows open in Indonesia for more than seven decades now. It is from those windows, the wind of change comes to mature and develop Indonesia’s reading and writing interest. Ikapi is the literacy icon of Indonesia – on organization of book publishers, stretched from Sabang until Merauke. This is Ikapi.