Walter Betts Honored with TLA Lifetime Achievement Award 

Walter Bett’s years of public service were honored with the lifetime achievement award from the Texas Library Association. Betts was recognized at the association’s annual conference held in April.  

Betts is the Library Systems and Technology Director at the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries system. In this role, he manages two teams, the systems team and the tech team.  

The systems team manages the enterprise software and servers at UTA Libraries. The tech team manages the thousands of computers here at UTA Libraries, including staff computers, public computers and tech lending computers. He is also responsible for purchasing software and hardware for the library.  

Before coming to UTA Libraries in 2020, Betts was the systems librarian at Texas Christian University for 14 years from 2006-2020.   

As an academic librarian and library educator, Betts has served with distinction in school libraries at the campus and district levels. He spent time at the Irving and Dallas Independent School Districts and served as an adjunct professor at Texas Woman's University since 2001.  

He has not only served his own institutions incredibly well; he also assumed key positions at the state and national levels to support and advance the work of libraries.   

Betts has held positions with the American Library Association and served in multiple TLA officer roles and executive board positions, including TLA president from 2016 to 2017.  

The Lifetime Achievement Award is given to a librarian who has been a long-standing member of TLA and recognizes an exemplary career in librarianship and an extended record of service. It values active participation in professional organizations, creative leadership and service to the library profession.  

Betts stated that he was surprised and honored to receive this recognition.   

“I am grateful to receive this honor, and I extend my thanks to both my family and my close circle of TLA friends for their unwavering support. I owe my success to their encouragement and assistance and to the many opportunities that were provided to me when I was new to the profession,” Betts said. “I encourage my Texas colleagues to remember my conference theme, ‘Own Your Profession,’ a clarion call for librarians to be proud of their contributions to our communities even in the face of attacks on our profession.”