Library development in Bangladesh is closely related to the development of library education in the country. The rapid growth of libraries in the mid-twentieth century resulted in the need to initiate education and training programs for library professionals. Library Science training began in 1952 with a three-month training program for library staff at Dhaka University Library. This led to the establishment in 1959 of a one-year post-graduate diploma course at Dhaka, with Masters and Doctorate degrees being added later. Since being instituted, these programs have produced 1,081 post-graduate diplomas, 815 Masters degrees and four Ph.D's. From the 1960s to the 1980s, library staff training programs also began to be offered by what is now the National Administration Education Management, the Bangladesh Library Council, four teachers training colleges and the Library Association of Bangladesh. The present state of the 19,130 libraries in Bangladesh is discussed in relation to their total personnel of 7,789. To deal with this shortage of professional, trained library personnel, a nationwide policy for a network of library systems and the expansion of current library education programmes by instituting departments of Library and Information Science in all general universities is proposed.