Olson has authored or co-authored over thirty peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and has published three books: Subject Analysis in Online Catalogs, 2nd ed., co-authored by John J. Boll (Libraries Unlimited, 2001); Information Sources in Women's Studies and Feminism, editor (KG Saur, 2002); and The Power to Name: Locating the Limits of Subject Representation in Libraries (Kluwer Academic, 2002).
[2][3] In her research, Olson explores the ethical consequences of inadequate representation and emphasizes the desirability of using knowledge organization as a change agent for the enrichment of users.
[5][6] She argues in favor of a less hierarchical and more contextual and interconnected structure of knowledge, employing Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger and Tarule's concept of connected knowing.
Olson argues that Dewey and Cutter’s insistence on a universal language is “a harmful characteristic in the sense that it marginalizes and excludes Others – concepts outside of a white, male, Eurocentric, Christocentric, heterosexual, able-bodied, bourgeois mainstream.”[8] Olson goes on to illustrate shortcomings of applied subject headings by analyzing selected Dewey Decimal Classification and Library of Congress Subject Headings representing concepts of gender, race, and ethnicity.
She concludes with a call for a more "eccentric" approach to subject access, including techniques to "breach the limits" of library classification systems by making them more permeable, open, and dynamic.