Xinyu Yu was born in Guiyang, Guizhou, China.  Prior to coming to the States, she taught English for four and a half years at Guizhou Normal University, China. She studied and lived in Beijing, China, Norman, Oklahoma, and Denton, Texas.

She has research interests in image indexing and consumer health information. Joining School of Library and Information Science in August 2007, she has taught cataloging and classification, information in the library and society, introduction to information science, research methods, special libraries, metadata, and digital libraries. 

She is a member of American Library Association, American Society for Information Science and Technology, and the South Central Chapter of Medical Library Association. Her peer-reviewed publications appear in Library & Information Science Research and Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet.