Hannelore Vogt

Dr. Hannelore Vogt is the director of the Cologne Public Library. Under her leadership, the Cologne Public Library was named the national Library of the Year in 2015, as was the Würzburg Public Library, of which she was previously director. In 2016 she was honored by  the Cologne Cultural Department as “Cultural Manager of the Year” and in 2019 she was awarded the Karl-Preusker-Medal by Library and Information in Germany – Federal Union of German Library Associations (BID) for her “innovative thinking and action”. The medal is awarded to those who have distinguished themselves in their support and advancement of the cultural and educational mandates of librarianship. Dr. Vogt has a degree in Library Science, a Master’s Degree in Cultural Management and Doctorate in Marketing.

In addition to serving on the board of the Goethe Institute’s “Information & Library” division, she was a strategic advisor for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She is an international speaker on topics of library marketing, customer orientation, innovation management and personnel development.

The role and importance of Public libraries has been changing a lot more during the last fifteen years than in the 50 years before that. This does not only bring new (and exciting) challenges and the need of further development, but must also be made clear in the political arena permanently.

I am very happy to be able to continue to shape the future of libraries together with such great colleagues from all over Europe and a powerful organization like PL2030. Libraries are of central importance for the digital society. Together, let us convince everyone who is still not aware of that!