C. Olivia Frost

Interim Dean of the School of Information 2006-07

C. Olivia Frost is a scholar of knowledge organization and an early adopter of digitization technologies.

Frost received her BA in German from Howard University in 1961, her MA in German and PhD in library science from the University of Chicago in 1964 and 1977, respectively, and her MLS degree from the University of Oregon in 1970. She taught German for four years at the University of Illinois before deciding to pursue a career in library science. 

She joined the University of Michigan faculty as assistant professor of library science in 1977 and was promoted to associate professor in 1981 and professor in 1989.

Frost's early research focused on subject access in library catalogs. Later, she studied retrieval of digital image information and organization of information, with an emphasis on non-textual materials. She is the author of two books and many journal publications. Frost was principal investigator of the Art Image Browser project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, and the Cultural Heritage Initiative for Community Outreach, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

The latter project involved working with museums, archives, libraries and K-12 schools developing pilot projects to demonstrate the potential of information and collaboration technology in broadening the reach of cultural heritage materials. CHICO celebrated the arts and cultural expressions within and across communities, regardless of location. These ranged from archaeological exhibits about “Foods of the Ancient World” to the 500-year history of African people in the Americas. CHICO was especially popular with K-12 schoolteachers because of the lesson plans Frost’s team developed.

Bradley Taylor (PhD ’01), former associate director of the Museum Studies Program at U-M, remembered Frost’s leadership fondly and how she gathered teams of master’s and doctoral students to participate in CHICO.

“Those of us lucky enough to work for her learned from the strong example she set as a researcher and educator,” Taylor said. “Her enthusiastic support of these projects led to my doctoral research in the human response to surrogate images and greatly influenced my own teaching and ongoing research.”

Frost served as associate dean for academic affairs of the School of Information and Library Studies (which in 1996 became the School of Information) from 1989 to 2005. As associate dean, she provided administrative oversight for curriculum delivery and student services in the Master of Science in Information program. Throughout her tenure, she served on numerous school and university-wide committees and was active in several national professional associations.

During the search for a new dean to replace John L. King, she served as interim dean from 2006 to 2007. During that time, she convened the building committee that informed the design of the North Quad space. She also obtained funding from the Provost’s Office to support experiments in virtual co-location between the school’s West Hall and North locations and was instrumental in landing several key gifts.

In 2021, a collegiate professorship in her name honored her as a distinguished scholar in knowledge organization and an early adopter of digitization technologies. Elizabeth Yakel, then senior associate dean for academic affairs, was appointed C. Olivia Frost Collegiate Professor of Information.

C. Olivia Frost retired from the university in 2010 as professor emerita of information.