Karen Burton has always been fascinated with bugs. So much so, that the Columbia native wanted to major in entomology, but her choices in South Carolina were pretty limited — Clemson has the only entomology program in the state. In fact, Burton has the distinction of being the last undergraduate entomology major in Clemson history.
“I actually had to write a letter to the Board of Trustees, because they were going to discontinue the program, but they had already printed the undergraduate announcements and they had entomology in there. I had to write them to state that formed a contract and you have to let me major in that,” she said. “I was the last undergraduate entomology major ever.”
During her time as an undergraduate, Burton worked as a research assistant in a lab, which she continued to do as a research associate after graduation. She worked on a project looking at biological controls to help eradicate the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid, an invasive species that has devastated hemlock trees in the Southeastern U.S. This work led to her first published research article.
After that, she and her husband moved a few times, and Burton’s career path took several turns. She taught violin for a little while — she played growing up and played in the orchestra at Clemson. She started thinking about going back to school for a library science degree, but in the meantime got a job with the Wake County Public Library System in North Carolina, which she enjoyed. Ultimately, she and her family ended up back in Clemson, and Burton got a job as a tutor for the athletics department.
“That was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot,” she said. “Essentially, I was people’s academic coach and own personal reference librarian. I learned a lot about reference interviews, asking questions, asking leading questions, trying to get to the root of people’s actual question, so that was really good training for being a librarian.”
Burton wanted a change of pace, so she decided to go back to school and get her Master of Library and Information Science degree from the University of South Carolina. 
“I always liked libraries, I liked the idea of being an academic librarian, and I like working with college students,” she said. “It never seemed to be boring.”
During her master’s program, she got an internship with Clemson Libraries, conducting a survey to assess the research data management needs of Clemson faculty, staff and graduate students.
After completing her degree, her first job was with the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Greenville as a learning success coordinator. She describes the job as “surprisingly library adjacent, even though I had nothing to do with the library.” Her job was managing the school’s learning management system, which was used to track continuing medical education credits that doctors are required to earn to maintain their medical license.
Burton returned to Clemson in 2022, when she was hired as the librarian for the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences (CAFLS), a role that allows her to combine her library science education with her background in science. She is the liaison librarian for all departments in CAFLS — agricultural sciences; animal and veterinary sciences; food, nutrition and packaging sciences; forestry and environmental conservation; and plant and environmental sciences — as well as Clemson Extension. She helps students with their research and literature reviews, and she does library instruction for CAFLS classes, teaching students how to use the Libraries’ resources and services.
“I like helping people find the information they need, when they need it,” she said.
Even though Burton has only been in her current role a few years, she is already representing Clemson at the national level in her field. She was recently elected chair-elect of AgNIC, the Agriculture Network Information Collaborative, a partnership of land-grant universities, the National Agriculture Library and other research institutions. AgNIC’s mission is the identification, discovery, management, delivery and preservation of information and data related to agriculture, food and natural resources.
Outside of work, Burton enjoys cooking and baking, hiking, swimming and reading. She and her husband have three children — two in college and one about to start kindergarten.