Volunteers and Bureaucrats: Clarifying Roles and Creating Meaning

Abstract

One element largely missing in the literature on coproduction is research on imple menting and successfully maintaining a process that involves the use of citizen and citizens group inputs into bureaucratically organized public agencies. This article is concerned with hozu priblic managers in a large library system create meaning and develop roles for conducting cooperative activities with citizens for the delivery of library services. The data indicates that there are a variety of roles performed by citizens which vary in how successfully they are integrated into the organization from the perspective of managers. Significant differences are found between citizens in the role of service providers and fund raisers, in whether their relationship is with the central library administration or branch libraries and in whether the style of a manager is flexible or bureaucratic.