In 1971, a management consulting firm undertook a case study of the Columbia University libraries to improve library performance by reviewing and strengthening the organization and recasting staff composition and deployment patterns. To implement the study's recommendations, an administrative structure was proposed which would emphasize functional relationships and take full advantage of subject and operational specialties among the staff. The final report of the study was thoroughly reviewed by library staff of all levels, and opportunities were provided for staff input. Because the study recommendations were not detailed enough to permit direct implementation, a preimplementation planning process was conceived to proceed in three discrete but interrelated phases concerned with organization, staffing, and operations. With this basis, the library's on-going program of operational planning is taking place in the context of a fully documented organization. Each operating unit and position is fully defined, and a program accounting budget has been developed to provide additional data. The new organization is the starting point for the evolutionary change which the management study and restructuring were intended to permit. (Author/SL)