PERSONNEL REQUIREMENTS IN THE LIBRARIES OF BANGLADESH

Library development in Bangladesh is closely related to the developmen t of library education in the country. The rapid growth of libraries i n the mid-twentieth century resulted in the need to initiate education and training programs for library professionals. Library Science trai ning began in 1952 with a three-month training program for library sta ff 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 pro grams have produced 1,081 post-graduate diplomas, 815 Masters degrees and four Ph.D's. From the 1960s to the 1980s, library staff training p rograms also began to be offered by what is now the National Administr ation Education Management, the Bangladesh Library Council, four teach ers training colleges and the Library Association of Bangladesh. The p resent state of the 19,130 libraries in Bangladesh is discussed in rel ation to their total personnel of 7,789. To deal with this shortage of professional, trained library personnel, a nationwide policy for a ne twork of library systems and the expansion of current library educatio n programmes by instituting departments of Library and Information Sci ence in all general universities is proposed.