Passion is often the driving force behind an individual’s career; it serves as motivation, perseverance, and even purpose in one’s life. For Valerie Karno, professor of English and creative writing, and the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, her passion has always been learning. Deeply curious at an early age, Karno strived to surround herself with peers who held her same values in learning.
“I got my Ph.D. because I wanted to be a lifelong learner, and I wanted to work at a university from a very young age. I want to be in the midst of other people whose passion is to keep growing,” Karno said. “So for me, living is learning, and learning is living. That’s when I feel alive and I want to give that to other people.”
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Karno grew up with film, television, and music as part of her self-constitution. With a B.A. from UC Berkeley in English, she then received a J.D. from University of California, San Francisco Law School. There she was Editor-in-Chief of both the International and Comparative Law Review, and the Women’s Law Journal. During law school she published essays on the CITES treaty, and feminist legal theory. Through her interests and career path, Karno eventually found her way back to her original area of study, English, and began her doctoral dissertation research. She studied law and literature, which discusses how legal and literary narratives work together to create personhood.
Having been a professor for twenty-five years, Valerie Karno describes her evolution as “I’ve really moved into what I call the ‘Academic Wellness Space’. From thinking about “how personhood is conceived way back at the beginning of my career, Karno said. “I’m now really interested in how we can be human beings who are well and can fulfill our potential as much as possible.”
Most recently, Karno has devoted her research to finding ways to inspire each other in the current state of the world. Determined to intervene after noticing the steady decline of mental health in her students, Karno is in the process of writing a book for the American Library Association called Library Education and Wellness, which looks at library wellness programming throughout the United States. .
Through her research in the digital humanities, Dr. Karno also co-founded the app Ambience Search™. Ambience Search™ allows users to conduct live Google searches and choose a mood continuum so their searches come back with the information while moving them towards their desired mood. The Ambience Search™ algorithms provide the sounds, colors, and images which helps people get closer towards their desired moods every day while they are on their digital devices.
“Creating this app, I had to research sound studies, and I looked a lot into mood and the profile of mood studies,” Karno said. Karno studied color theory and sought to understand how our moods shape us as people. She wanted to apply that knowledge to the digital space so that searching for information better incorporates how we feel being human every day.
Dr. Karno was Director of the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies (GSLIS) at the University of Rhode Island for over a decade while also being an English professor. Since becoming Director in 2014, the GSLIS program as a whole grew around 50%, becoming more affordable and accessible to a greater group of students. URI is one of two major library schools in the northeast, leaving local libraries reliant on students coming from the program for staffing.
Dr. Karno uses her legal knowledge to teach information ethics and policy within GSLIS, including copyright law and archiving ethics.
“It’s just been so fulfilling for me,” Karno said. “I think the people who staff and run libraries are so incredibly well motivated. They really want the best for their communities and I really feel very honored and humbled to be a part of that group of people.”
Written by Erin Malinn ’28, journalism, Intern for the College of Arts and Sciences