Hope A. Olson

Hope A. Olson
Born
NationalityAmerican
Alma materGustavus Adolphus College, University of Toronto, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Scientific career
FieldsInformation science
InstitutionsUniversity of Wisconsin–Milwaukee

Hope A. Olson is Professor Emerita at the School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. She was previously a professor at the University of Alberta.

From 2000 to 2004 Olson was the editor-in-chief for Knowledge Organization and she currently serves on its editorial board. She also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Library Metadata. 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).

She received a B.A. from Gustavus Adolphus College, an M.L.S. from the University of Toronto, and a Ph.D. (1996) from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Olson's research focuses on critical analysis of subject representations and classification systems. Using feminist, poststructural, and postcolonial perspectives, she examines the biases inherent in hierarchical organizational structures.