John Lehner: The New Director of Human Resources

John Lehner

It has long been the contention, and experience has proven, that the librarians and staff at the University of Houston are among the best in the nation. Naturally, the libraries take a great amount of pride in the expertise and professionalism of its librarians and staff. For the new Library Director of Human Resources, John Lehner, it has become his responsibility to continue attracting the nation's best librarians to the university.

Lehner was born and grew up in Southeastern Wisconsin. In 1974, Lehner received his bachelor's degree in English Literature from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He then entered law school at Washington University in St. Louis, earning his law degree in 1979. The next year, Lehner completed a Master of City Planning program at the University of Pennsylvania. It was as a city planner in Fort Lauderdale and then Palm Beach County, Florida, that Lehner spent the first ten years of his professional life. He eventually rose to the position of Executive Director of the Palm Beach County Planning, Zoning and Building Development, overseeing an agency with a $10 million annual budget and a staff of 270 people. At what many would consider the peak of a career, Lehner did something curious. He quit his job and re-enrolled in college. When asked why, he responded, "After ten years, I decided I didn't want to do this crazy stuff anymore."

While heading his planning staff in Florida, Lehner became interested in human resources and entered the business school at Tulane. He earned an MBA with an emphasis in human resources in 1991. He followed with a Master of Industrial and Labor Relations degree at Cornell which he earned in two very intense semesters.

While he was attending Cornell, a friend who was studying to become a personnel librarian exposed Lehner to academic librarianship. Through this friend, Lehner developed contacts with other librarians and decided that library science was the next path he wished to pursue. In 1994, he left the University of Albany with his Master's of Library Science degree and began his career as a professional librarian.

Lehner has discovered that one of the benefits of his position as Director of Human Resources is the opportunity to use the full scope of his education. The organizational and human relations skills he learned as a city planner are very useful in fostering strong employee relations within the library. His knowledge of industrial and labor relations have also served him well.

The major priority for Lehner is attracting talented librarians and administrators to the library. Currently, a number of important positions are vacant. However, the difficulty in filling these positions lies in the fact that currently there is a very tight job market for professional librarians. According to Lehner, these problems can be conquered because the UH Libraries are a good starting point for many young librarians now entering the field. The libraries are large, having more than two million volumes as well as sophisticated electronic resources. As a member of the Association of Research Libraries it has a certain amount of prestige. Most importantly, the libraries already employ nationally-recognized and awarded librarians who provide an opportunity for new librarians to learn from the best.

As a new Houstonian, Lehner is also excited about the city. He believes that outsiders underrate Houston culturally. He has already visited the symphony and the Alley Theater and he is looking forward to seeing several operas this upcoming season. He plans to use the city's rich cultural life as a major selling point when trying to recruit professionals for the library.

Keith Heimbaugh