Art. 39 of our University's Statute defines the University Library: "an organ, with autonomy in expenses, which aims at preserving, developing, enhancing and managing the bibliographic and documental holdings, by making them available both to University teaching staff and students and to anyone entitled".

The Library's organs are:
- The Library board and its President,
- The Disciplinary area' commissions and their Presidents,
- The Library Director.

• The Library board is the steering, planning and coordinating organ; it is formed by representatives of the entire academic population (teaching staff, students and technical-administrative staff) and it meets periodically to coordinate library development trends with the University's teaching and research activities, and also to approve the Library's cultural, economic and management lines.
• Disciplinary area commissions, formed exclusively by representatives from the teaching staff, annually plan the expenses in bibliographic material for each area (as defined in the Library's regulations).
• The Library Director is responsible for the implementation of directions and plans established by the Library board and takes care of the Library's administrative and general management and of its services, planning workflows and managing library staff.

The Library's main official documents, drawn up and approved by the aforementioned organs, are:
- the Library's regulations, and
- the Code of Service.

• The Library's regulations contain Library board and Area commissions functioning rules, the Library's management lines and establish the articulation in different seats.
• The Code of Service outlines in detail all available services, defines how users can take part in Library's activities, describes library staff behavioural code and, finally, the rules for the users to observe in using Library's services.

The University's Library is a single institution articulated in three physically separate libraries: Central, Science and Medicine. Its structure differs radically from most Italian University library systems, which have been created in the recent past to rationalize the management of libraries scattered in different faculties, departments, institutes and so on, according to a global strategic plan. Our University, to avoid all risks of fragmentation, has adopted an alternative framework, which would at the same time optimize human and economic resources and standardize procedures, with the goal of increasing efficiency.

The Library's managing framework can be defined "mixed", because along with a typically top-down/functional structure (the articulation in three libraries and the provision of typical librarian services), one can find lighter cross procedures, based on a "work-by-processes" basis (working groups, transverse working flows).

The Library's workforce is composed by 40 persons approximately, coordinated by seats' and area services' managers. The Library also employs aide students (150 hours contracts).

Front office activities are carried out in each Library and involve library patrons: reception, information and services (consultation, loan, inter-library services, reference, reproduction and so on), reading room and equipment (printers, terminals etc. ) management, shelf-tidying.

Common services deal with activities common to the three libraries:

• Back office (print and multimedia resources management): acquires both print (books, journals) and multimedia (audiovisual material, databases con CD/DVD-ROM), catalogues and processes documents for shelving, maintains the online catalogue (OPAC), disseminates information about new publications and recent acquisitions;
• Electronic Resources management: purchases and manages e-journals and remote data bases;
• Digital Library: manages tools for research and access to digital resources (SFX, MetaLib, Linx);
• Training, Development and Communication: organizes and coordinates training programmes aimed at users and librarians; manages inward and outward communication projects; promotes managing framework development actions;
• Information Systems management: manages the computer framework (client and server administration; purchasing, holdings and balance; Local Electronic Resources installation and upgrading; measurement; Aleph).

The Library's automation system is managed by the Aleph Working Group.