Somebody has to be the Front Line”: Discretion among Public Library Staff Assisting with Social Services

• In Event: Bridging the Gap: How Modern Street-Level Bureaucrats shape Administrative Burden and Citizen-State Interactions

Abstract

As social services increasingly rely on the internet to provide information to clients, navigation of these programs often occurs in community settings, such as public libraries, that offer access to resources like public computers. In traditional welfare frameworks, government employees, or street-level bureaucrats, are responsible for policy implementation by guiding applicants through paperwork and navigating benefits; however, in settings outside of government offices, library staff, for example, may take on this responsibility. Scholars have examined library staff’s roles in assisting patrons with social services (see Bertot et al., 2008; Bertot et al., 2013; Gibson et al. 2009; Jaeger & Bertot, 2009); however, more research is needed to investigate how library staff make decisions in assisting patrons with these programs. Previous work shows how traditional street-level bureaucrats navigate discretion in their work (Bartram, 2019; Jacobsson et al., 2020; Lipsky 1971; 1980; May & Winter, 2009; Maynard-Moody & Musheno, 2000; Tummers & Bekkers, 2014), but little research examines how those working outside of traditional social service offices do so. This is important to understand because these individuals, such as library staff, do not have the training that a traditional street-level bureaucrat would have (Gibson et al., 2009). However, they may still have substantial discretion in whether and how to assist patrons in their roles. This decision-making may shape policy implementation, potentially altering benefit access and the administrative burdens applicants experience. The current study examines the ways in which library staff exercise discretion in assisting library patrons with navigating social service programs.  

This study draws from semi-structured interviews with 21 public library staff within a public library system in Wisconsin. I take a symbolic interactionist approach, using both deductive and inductive coding approaches to examine how library staff practice discretion, and in particular, boundary maintenance. This also includes how they choose to go “above and beyond” for certain patrons. 

Preliminary findings reveal that library staff make decisions about the extent to which they are willing to help patrons based on their perceptions of patrons’ needs. Their perceptions of need are largely reflective of community-level factors, such as the presence of other organizations that may be able to assist patrons and library staff’s relationships with patrons. Therefore, in the context of increasing online navigation of resources, public library staff serve as the front line in determining patron need, despite their lack of training. Further, library staff hold anonymity in their assistance with navigating patrons’ benefits, as their names are not associated with the benefit navigation processes with which they assist. Together, this means that a fragmented social service system places the onus of responsibility on individuals within communities who hold substantial discretion, but who are not formally or informally tied to benefit applications. 

Author

• Emma Flanagan, Wisconsin Department of Health Services
  Presenting Author