Profile for Mike Olson | UW-La Crosse

Mike Olson

Assistant Professor

University Library

Specialty area(s)

Critical Cataloging, Visual Literacy, Zines

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 transforming his peer-reviewed scholarship into zines traded at festivals, he bridges academic knowledge production with DIY publishing networks to build the Zine Reading Room in Murphy Library — an intentionally uncataloged collection of 600+ 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). 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. (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/

Anderson, K., & Moore, J. (Hosts). (2025, October 22). Interview with Mike Olson about library tech [podcast episode]. In 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

Kudos

published

Mike Olson, Murphy Library, authored the article "Keith Walsh: Weapons of Mass Instruction" in Academizines! special issue of Unbound: A Journal of Digital Scholarship and was accepted for publication by Digital Cultural Studies Cooperative. The zine centers on artist Keith Walsh’s information activism, using maps and diagrams of social movements to show how design can organize knowledge, recover suppressed histories, and demonstrate the power of critical visual literacy to spark reflection and social change.

Submitted on: Mar. 27

awarded

Mike Olson, Murphy Library, received the Editors' Choice award at the 57th Annual Conference of the International Visual Literacy Association on Nov. 2 in Aguascalientes, Mexico. His paper "Learning Machines: Artist Keith Walsh's Critical Visual Literacy in Activism" will be published as a book chapter by Purdue University Press in 2026.

Submitted on: Nov. 24, 2025

Memberships & affiliations

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