Profile for Mike Olson

Mike Olson

Assistant Professor

University Library

Specialty area(s)

Cataloging Librarian

Brief biography

Mike Olson is an Assistant Professor and Cataloging Librarian at Murphy Library. His research examines how library classification systems and corporate information infrastructures encode and reproduce structures of power. He also publishes on the critical visual literacies developed and deployed by artist-activists in pursuit of social justice. Through his ongoing project of translating his research into zines traded at festivals, he bridges academic knowledge production with DIY publishing networks to build the Zine Reading Room in Murphy Library, a community collection of hundreds of titles that functions as a space for information literacy pedagogy and community publishing, serving courses across the university.

Education

MLIS, Valdosta State University
BA Studio Arts, University of Northern Iowa

Career

Research and publishing

Publications

Olson. M. (2026). Learning machines: Artist Keith Walsh’s critical visual literacy in activism. In W. Huang, F.M. Rodrigues, L. Okan, C. Huilcapi-Collantes, E. Corrigan and P. Klubek (Eds.), Illuminating perspectives through critical visual literacy (pp. 1-19). Purdue University Press. https://www.press.purdue.edu/9781626713826/

Olson, M. (2026). Zines as integrated practice: Critical community engagement and participatory librarianship through radical print culture. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 52(5). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2026.103278

Olson, M. (2026). Operating the franchise: Vendor consolidation, algorithmic mediation, and the remaking of academic librarians as platform administrators for digital capitalism. Information Research, an International Electronic Journal, 31(2), 348–367. https://doi.org/10.47989/ir31262945

Olson, M. (2026). Keith Walsh: Weapons of mass instruction. Unbound: A Journal of Digital Scholarship,4(1). https://doi.org/10.12794/journals.ujds.v4i1.358

Olson, M. (2025). Error as insight: AI hallucinations and the pedagogical possibilities of generative visual misrepresentation. Journal of Visual Literacy, 44(4), 454-470. https://doi.org/10.1080/1051144X.2025.2569015

Olson, M. (2025, August 26). Beyond classification: The human cost of library and information labor under digital capitalism. The Scholarly Kitchen. https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2025/08/26/guest-post-beyond-classification-the-human-cost-of-library-and-information-labor-under-digital-capitalism/ / Zine version

Olson, M. (2025, March 25). Classification as colonization: The hidden politics of library catalogs. The Scholarly Kitchen. https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2025/03/25/guest-post-classification-as-colonization-the-hidden-politics-of-library-catalogs/ / Zine version

Olson, M. (2024). Reading the pictures [review of the website, in Internet Resources: Visual Literacy]. Public Services Quarterly, 20(4), 306-311. https://doi.org/10.1080/15228959.2024.2405704

Olson, M. (2024). Critical visual literacy in activism: Artist Violet Ray's counterimages. In J. Lee, L. Okan, F. Rodrigues, C. Huilcapi-Collantes, E. Corrigan, G. Chesner, & H. Han (Eds.), Ways of seeing: The book of selected readings 2024 (pp. 85-99). International Visual Literacy Association. https://doi.org/10.52917/ivlatbsr.2024.017 / Zine version

Presentations

Olson, M., & Manno, C. (2026, April 9). DIY activist zines: Telling your story, inspiring change. Social Justice Week: Community Healing & Collective Care - Access, Belonging, & Compliance, University of Wisconsin–La Crosse. Slides

Olson, M. (2025, November 19). Zines as critical visual literacy: Student agency, slow craft, and scholarly remix. Association of College and Research Libraries Image Resource Discussion Group Fall Meeting, Virtual. https://connect.ala.org/acrl/discussion/fall-irdg-meeting-reminder-agenda-2#bmdafbf909-2722-482b-a09a-2c1cd61a089c/ Slides/ Video

Olson, M. (2025, November 15). Zine librarianship in the undercommons: Memory, labor, and resistance. Staple + Stitch Art Book + Print Fair. https://www.stapleandstitchfair.com/events-2025/zine-librarianship-in-the-undercommons-memory-labor-and-resistance

Olson, M. (2025, November 8). Zines in hostile climates. Zine Librarians unConference, Virtual. https://www.zinelibraries.info/wiki/zluc2025/

Olson, M., DeZelar-Tiedman, C., Scates Kettler, H. (2025, November 3). Uncharted waters: Exploring AI, ethics, and guiding principles for libraries. Minitex Technical Services Symposium. https://minitextss2025.sched.com/

Olson, M. (Interviewee). (2025, October 22). Interview with Mike Olson about library tech [podcast episode]. In K. Anderson & J. Moore (Hosts), Disrupted Science. https://youtu.be/iWdWer0Ym-I

Olson, M. (2024, November 4). Critical visual literacy in activism: Artist Keith Walsh’s political infographics - Illuminating social histories. Fifty-sixth annual conference of the International Visual Literacy Association, Virtual. https://ivla.org/conference-2024/ Video: https://youtu.be/KEFNS7rjilg/ Slides

Olson, M. (2023, October 2-8). Critical visual literacy in activism - Counterimages: Radically repurposed visual culture in Violet Ray’s ‘Advertising the Contradictions.’ Fifty-fifth annual conference of the International Visual Literacy Association, Urbana-Champaign, IL, United States. https://ivla.org/conference-2023/ / Slides

Memberships & affiliations

[{"organization":"Progressive Librarians Guild","position":"Member","url":"https://www.progressivelibrariansguild.org/"},{"organization":"UWL Faculty Senate","position":"Member","url":"https://www.uwlax.edu/faculty-senate/"}]