Rolf Hapel is since 2006 director of Citizens’ Services and Libraries in Aarhus, Denmark. He is librarian by education and hold a master degree in Digitization and Public Administration. He has served as librarian, deputy manager, city librarian and director in four Danish cities.

He has been chair of numerous steering groups, committees and advisory boards nationally and internationally. E.g. he is currently member of advisory board for EU project Public Libraries 2020, he was member of advisory board for the Global Libraries initiative of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 2008-2013, member ofthe jury in the competition for the new main library in Oslo in 2009 and advisor to Helsinki competition for new city library 2012. Member of PubliCA consortium 1997-99 and member of the Bertelsmann Foundation International Network of Public Libraries (INPL) 1999-2003. Member of the Danish Ministry of Culture Committee, forming the Danish act on public libraries, 2003.

Rolf has written many articles and he is an international renowned speaker on issues like library development and transformation. Among recent work on national level was heading the Danish Digital Library coordinating committee. Internationally, the Next Library conferences 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015 and cooperation with Chicago Public Library and the design company IDEO supported by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on a toolkit Design Thinking for Libraries 2014 have mapped Aarhus as one of the hot spots for public library development in the world. The biggest task for Rolf has been the realization of the stunning new main library, Dokk1, that opened in June 2015 in Aarhus. It is a thirty thousand square meters building reflecting a new concept of the physical library in the networked society.