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In this essay I analyzed Max Weber's theory about bureaucracy as applied to the library. I was informed by Professor Velasquez that the library is run as a bureaucracy. Many of the thoughts of Weber concerning bureaucracy certainly seem to match the organization of the modern library.

By reading Frederick Taylor's essay on Scientific Management, it was clear that he applied his theory primarily to industrial organization. However the essay demonstrates that many of the thoughts of Taylor have been applied to the field of library science. It is amazing to see how both bureaucracy and Scientific Management can actually fit together in certain places. Bureaucracy certainly has a negative connotation today. Yet we should not ignore some of the benefits provided by this system such as social mobility and specialization, as noted by Weber. The role of specialization can benefit library patrons when members of IT and reference librarians teach computer classes to the entire community.

Bureaucracy

The aim of this paper is to view Bureaucracy and Scientific Management separately. After viewing the main details of the theory and practices of these two management styles,it is interesting to view how closely alike these views are when it comes to social mobility and hierarchy,but different regarding the salaries of employees.

Before describing the environment of Bureaucracy,it is important to view the characteristics of the bureaucrat. Weber notes an important element of this individual by stating,"Office management...usually presupposes thorough training in a field of specialization"(1978,100). If we look at the training for a librarian this is certainly evident. Some librarians choose to specialize in academic libraries,legal libraries,children's services and other areas.

Beyond the official training of the bureaucrat,there is also the more informal knowledge of the office. Weber states that the bureaucrat learns the working of the particular office in which he or she is employed,and this "...represents a special technical expertise"(100). In the case of the librarian,there are skills which he or she learns as part of obtaining a Master of Library Science degree,and then there are the unofficial but no less important skills that are learned at the particular library where he or she is employed.

To work in a library beyond the position of page or check-out clerk usually requires the possession of a Master of Library science degree. Weber notes that before bureaucracy,an official was chosen based on his or her lineage(107). Now,Weber claims,that has been superseded by the educational qualification of the official. While Weber applied this statement to political offices,it follows that in order to be a librarian,the applicant must have an MLS degree.

Explaining this concept more thoroughly,Weber states that before bureaucracy education in different cultures was not pursued for the purpose of a particular skill. In a bureaucracy knowledge of a particular skill is required(100). This requirement can now be seen in the age of computers. The librarian must be beyond mere computer literacy. He or she must possess detailed knowledge of databases,programming languages,and internet skills.

In writing about skills and the bureaucrat Weber speaks about the individual and the office by stating:Precision,speed, unambiguity,knowledge of the files,continuity,discretion,unity,strict subordination,reduction of friction and of material and personal costs-these are raised to the optimum point in the strictly bureaucratic administration... (1978,102).

In an article about the librarian in a bureaucracy Beverly P. Lynch writes,"The library profession itself seeks ways to divide the work into those tasks which are professional and those which are clerical in order to reduce costs,achieve greater efficiency...(1978,264). So the task of the librarian is in perfect unity with the bureaucratic office as described by Weber.

The description so far has been about the individual employee in the bureaucratic office, in this case the library. It is time to look at the characteristics of the office itself. Weber notes early in his discussion about a bureaucracy that there is a chain of command in all the different forms of bureaucratic office. In addition the office is governed by rules and these rules are part of the skills of the employees(99).

The office itself,according to Weber, provides social mobility for the employees(102). It is also noted that the employee ascends these different posts by way of certification. Hence,a member of the check-out staff who wants to work in the reference department will have to obtain an MLS degree before he or she can move forward. In her article about librarians and bureaucracies Lynch notes,"Professionals tend to chafe under perceived bureaucratic constraints and strive for greater participation in library affairs so as to eliminate some of the constraints"(1978,262). Academic librarian Laura Cohen (entry posted June 27,2007, on Library 2.0 An academic's perspective blog) echoed this statement and exclaimed,In my library,we have a top-level administrator body,a mid-level administrator body,an academic governance structure, administrative committees,departmental committees,department head groups,ad hoc committees,and project working groups. It can be a challenge,sometimes,to know exactly which body to approach with issues or proposals. It can also be a challenge to move through a designated structure in order to accomplish anything significant.(2007,3)

So here we have a problem: How to actually work in a bureaucracy? If we look at Cohen's quote,it seems almost impossible. Cohen however does not believe it is an impossible situation. For at the end of her posting,she notes that one must find a way to actually navigate this situation in order to accomplish something(4)

Continuing on this idea of working in a bureaucracy Ezra Suleiman,although speaking about political bureaucracies,states that in regard to the worker in the bureaucracy;"Bucking the chain of command to get the job done is a central myth of American popular culture"(13). Although this might be true,it points to a problem in bureaucracy. Lynch talks about this problem in her article by describing the struggle between those who want to give people what they want,and the rules and staff which prevent this from happening.(264)

In an article,Terry G. Schwartz addresses this problem noted by Cohen and Lynch by proclaiming,Quality Customer Service in the public sector will probably never equal the system that exists in the private sector. Bureaucrats live with too many old paradigms that block the way for effective change. The systems are too large,in many cases, to allow independent action by staff who are temporary fixtures in their organization. So can the employee work effectively in the bureaucracy of the library? Although Schwartz writes about an office that is not a library,his description of actually working in such an environment is not that different than the library as described by Cohen and Lynch.

So can we get rid of the bureaucracy of the library? According to Lynch and Cohen the answer is no. This does not mean that the individual is powerless in these organizations. The best the librarian can do is remember that Schwartz,although giving a grim outlook for the employee in such an organization,notes at the end of his article that the employee can inform the customer what is possible given the rules, and teach him or her the reason why(1992,5). Although Schwartz notes in this selection that the employee should help the customer "...leave with a smile" this is not always the case. Yet when the employee takes time to actually talk with the customer in a friendly way, it helps the customer to know how things work, and helps the employee to see the perspective of the customer. Speaking to the patron as an individual makes them feel valued and that you are not just "passing the buck" to another agency or library.

Scientific Management

Scientific Management is a process invented by Frederick Taylor. Many times Taylor in his essay on Scientific Management breaks the process into parts, and perhaps that is the best way to describe how Scientific Management actually works. According to Taylor: The idea,then, of taking one man after another and training him under a competent teacher into new working habits until he continually and habitually works in accordance with scientific laws, which have been developed by someone else...(24) . This is the core of the first part of the process. The worker is taught by a teacher because it is impossible for the employee to do his or her job and record and develop the laws which surround his or her particular work(Taylor 1911, 39).

Taylor further describes the process and result of Scientific Management and states: The enormous saving of time and therefore increase in the output which it is possible to effect through eliminating unnecessary motions and substituting fast for slow and inefficient motions...can be fully realized only after one has personally seen the improvements which results from a thorough motion and time study...(1911, 9) By following such a plan, Taylor believes that the result will be greater wealth for the employee and the employer(28).

By following such a plan, Taylor believes that the result will be greater wealth for the employee and the employer(28). The second part of the process is the involvement of management. Taylor writes about the role of management and employee: " ...the management work almost side by side with the men,helping,helping,encouraging and smoothing the way for them; while in the past they...gave the men but little help..."(1911.33). These two ideas are the basic core of Scientific Management.

The relation of Scientific Management to bureaucracies can be seen in the article that was written about earlier by Beverly P. Lynch . In describing large libraries in the fifties she exclaims,"Librarians in these libraries were interested in achieving maximum efficiency at minimum cost"(1978, 262). This statement is similar to the philosophy of Scientific Management espoused by Taylor. For Taylor claims that one purpose of his style of management is to get "...maximum prosperity for the employer...maximum prospertity for the employee"(1911,3).

While these two goals seem to fit perfectly, there is a divergence when it comes to the issue of salary. For according to Taylor the employee submits to this type of management for the purpose of making more money(15). Yet in having written about bureaucracy and the library Lynch makes no mention of an increase in salary for the employee. Both these systems value efficiency, yet the end goal is different. In industry, an increase in profit means that the worker can make more money(Taylor 3). However, the library is not a profit making industry. It relies upon taxes for its income (Dougherty and Heinritz,1982, 7-8). So the library cannot entirely guarantee a greater wage for the employee. It could be noted that greater efficiency at the library could result in the taxpayers being more willing to approve an increase in funding.

Another area in which Scientific Management and Bureaucracy converge is that of social mobility. Weber noted that in a bureaucracy it is possible for workers to move into higher levels of the organization. Weber stated that through education the worker moves forward in the organization(102). Yet he also notes that bureaucracies in different countries also favor advancement through more informal means(106). Taylor's approach to education is similar to the more informal approach noted by Weber, what is called on the job training. Taylor illustrated this point by using the example of the factory; A manual laborer can eventually move into more skilled labor, the highly skilled laborer can eventually move into a management position(50). In writing about Taylor's system and the library in the book "Scientific Management and library operations" the authors noted that a benefit of the adoption of this system is the possibility of advance of the workers(Dougherty and Heinritz, 1982, 9).

Both of these management systems also rely on hierarchy. These systems certainly differ however, on the involvement of management with the employee. Throughout his paper on Scientific Management Taylor repeatedly noted the importance of management working closely with the employee. In this system of course management has the more influential position. For Taylor writes about management's role and the worker: "the scientific selection and development of the workman, after each man has been studied,taught,and trained , and one may say experimented with..."(46). Bureaucracy and Scientific Management share some values. Hierarchy and social mobility are the areas in which they converge. Yet even when they converge, the differences in their end goals make them slightly different.

References

Cohen, Laura B. Library 2.0 An academic's perspective. http://liblogs.albany.edu/ library20/2007/06/nineteenth_century_insight.html (accessed April 25, 2009).

Dougherty, Richard M. and Fred J. Heinritz with the assistance of Neil Kaske. 1982. Scientific management of library operations. 2^nd ed. Menchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press.

Lynch, Beverly P. Libraries as Bureaucracies. Library Trends (3) Winter 1979: Libraries and Society: Research and Thought: 259-268. http://hdl.handle.net/2142/7034,library trendsv27i3d_opt.pdf (accessed April 25,2009).

Schwartz,Terry G. 1992. A Leisure Service Paradox: Can Bureaucracies Reasonably Participate in Customer Service? Illinois Parks and Recreation vol. 23, no.6 (November-December): 30-32. http:// www.lib.niu.edu/1992/ip921130.html (accessed April 20,2009).

Sulieman, Ezra. 2006. Is Weber Still Relevant? The Future of Bureaucracy. http://www.afsp. msh-paris.fr/activite/2006/collinz06/txtlinz/suleiman.pdf (accessed April 20,2009).

Taylor, Frederick Winslow. 1911. The Principles of Scientific Management. http://melbecon. unimelb.edu.au/het/taylor/sciman.htm (accessed April 5, 2009).

Weber, Max. Bureaucracy. In Economy and Society,Vol.2.1978 ed. Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich. 99-109. N.p.: University of California Press. http://www.ruf.rice.edu/ -soci/courses/395/readings/week6/maxweber.pdf (accessed April 15, 2009).