As a board member, Olson has served MALF in a variety of ways during the past 20 years (Terms from 1990 – 1994; 1997 – 2007; and 2009 --). He has provided leadership to the organization as newsletter and website editor, membership manager and most recently in the futures planning process and as secretary pro tem. Olson is well known in the Minnesota library community through his work as the Executive Director for the Metropolitan Library Service Agency (MELSA) and for Cooperating Libraries in Consortium (CLIC). Olson also worked as the public information officer for the Lake Agassiz Regional Library in northwestern Minnesota, where he served as a staff liaison to the Friends groups in that region.
He is a former president of the Minnesota Library Association and has served as a councilor for the American Library Association. He also currently serves as an adjunct faculty member at St. Catherine University in the Masters of Library Science program.