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Bernard Palmer entered the library profession in 1927, when he was appointed Junior Assistant at Acton Library. By 1937, he had become Deputy Borough Librarian, and he set about re-classifying and cataloguing the library. During those years he studied on his own time for Library Association examinations, and took advantage of various correspondence courses, but it wasn't until 1935 that he actually became a fellow of the Library Association. It was this struggle for qualification that convinced him of the need in Britain for full-time librarianship education available for all, beyond the naturally limited scope of the nation's one library school, the University of London School of Librarianship.

In 1940, Palmer began lecturing to students at Spring Grove Polytechnic, Isleworth. But his work was interuppted by a call up to the RAF. His period in the service was spent mainly in India, and whilst stationed at Madras he met S R Ranganathan, the emminent Indian librarian. They struck up both a professional and personal relationship, and kept in touch until Ranganathan's death in 1972. Palmer maintained his links with India throughout his luife, and returned in 1965, at the invitation of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations, to undertake a lecture tour.

On his return to Britain after the war, Palmer was appointed Education Officer at the Library Association. He began his work at a point of great change in librarianship education, when new schools were being established to cater for returning servicemen. He work relentlessly for library education, and later encouraged a transfer of many of the Library Association's responsibilities to the actual schools. He believed that the Association should take on more of a watching brief, ensuring that standards remained high, but leaving the actual teaching and examing work to the schools.

Palmer received an honorary Master of Library Science from Queen's University, Belfast in 1973. He retired the following year, and died in 1979.