A librarian, educator and historian, Elizabeth Howard West served as the first librarian at Texas Technological College in 1925 and founded the Lubbock branch of the American Association of University Women (1926). Born in Pontotoc, Mississippi, on March 27, 1873, West received a degree from the Industrial Institute and College at Columbus, Mississippi. She taught in the public schools before moving to Texas in 1895. She received both her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Texas in 1901. She began her library training in 1905 and became a cataloger at the Texas State Library in 1906. West also worked as an assistant at the Library of Congress, was the Texas State Library archivist (1911-1915), the director of the San Antonio Library (1915-1918), and elected as State Librarian in 1918, making her the first woman department head in the Texas state government.

West had actively pursued research in Spanish and Mexican archives, and from 1930 to 1932 worked as a Library of Congress research assistant on the European Historical Mission. She published frequent articles in the and the She was a charter member of the Texas State Library Association and served as its president from 1914 to 1916. She also helped to found the Southwestern Library Association and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Delta Kappa Gamma, Daughters of the American Revolution and the Philosophical Society of Texas. West also directed the Southwestern Library Association's Regional Literature Program in Texas. She retired as college librarian at Texas Tech in 1942 and then worked as a historical research assistant for the Tech history department until 1947. Following a heart attack, West completely retired and moved to Pensacola, Florida, where she died on January 4, 1948.