Biography of Rolf Hapel

Rolf Hapel, born in Germany 1954, has worked in four Danish cities as librarian, deputy manager and director; becoming director of Aarhus Public Libraries (AaPL) in 1994. He is since 2006 director of Citizens' Services and Libraries (CSL). Rolf Hapel has been chairman of numerous steerings groups, committees and advisory boards, is author of a number of articles published in the library press and frequently speaks internationally on library related issues. He was a member of the Danish Ministry of Culture Committee, which formed the Danish act on public libraries. He is awarded by HM the Queen with the order of Dannebrog and is honorary professor at the Royal Danish Library School.

Aarhus Public Libraries has a long earned reputation of creating innovative services and developments using methods of co-creation and user involvement. AaPL was appointed European Centre of Excellence in the late 1990s and received the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation "Access to Learning Award" in 2004. CSL in Aarhus was runner up in "Innovation Cup" in 2007 and 2009 and the web site of AaPL is frequently among the top ranked in the "Best on the Net"- benchmark of Danish public institutions. International events like "Transformations the Library in Progress", 2004, "Childrens Interactive Library", 2006, "My Library on digital services", 2007, and the unconference "next library", 2009, have mapped Aarhus as one of the hot spots for library development in the world.