Barbara Froling Immroth ’64

Barbara Froling Immroth ’64, of Portland, Ore., formerly of Denver and Austin, Tex.; Sept. 6. She earned her master’s in librarianship from the University of Denver in 1965. During her time there, she married and started a family. The family moved to Pittsburgh, where she worked as a children’s librarian at Carnegie Library. In 1973, she began working as the school librarian at Central Catholic High School. After her husband’s passing in 1976, she was inspired to continue her education in order to support her family, and over the next four years she worked full-time at Central Catholic while completing her doctorate in library and information science at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1980, she accepted a position as assistant professor at the University of Texas Graduate School of Library and Information Science (now the iSchool) and moved to Austin. She was a faculty member at the iSchool for 36 years, where she was the first woman to advance from assistant professor to full professor or to direct a dissertation. She shaped the careers of countless librarians throughout Texas and the country and won numerous state and national awards for her service to the library field, including the American Library Association Beta Phi Mu Award in 2007 and the Texas Library Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. She served on numerous committees and in leadership positions, notably as president of the Association for Library Service to Children, and was a trustee of the Freedom to Read Foundation, president of the Texas Library Association, and national president of the Beta Phi Mu International Library Science Honorary Society. She served on national book award committees including the Randolph Caldecott Medal and the John Newbery Medal, both for children’s literature. She authored or coauthored seven books on the topics of library service and health information, including Texas in Children’s Books, Library Service to Youth of Hispanic Heritage, and Health Information Across the Curriculum. She enjoyed traveling with fellow librarians, attending librarian conferences all over the world, and being a volunteer greeter at the Texas History Museum. She is survived by two sons and daughters-in-law, three grandchildren, and three siblings.