Each week, we reflect on the top articles, blog posts, tweets, news, thoughts, and other tidbits we’ve found interesting or useful. Check out what our writers have spotted this week in library news. Enjoy!

Race

Over at the Journal of New Librarianship, Joseph Koivisto reflects on the way in which, by failing to adequately prepare new systems librarians, LIS programs have facilitated the consolidation of the ILS market under an ever smaller number of vendors and imperiled librarians’ ability to ensure that the technology we use aligns with our professional values — The Narrowing Field : The Intersection of Systems Librarian Training & ILS Marketplace Consolidation

Also, if you’re trying to catch up on / wrap your head around the announcement of “Plan S”, Peter Suber has written a very useful blog post for understanding the initiative’s strengths and weaknesses — Thoughts on Plan S

Vince

Back in March, Rachael Altman and Jill Wilson published an article entitled, The Importance of Transferable Skills for Career Growth. This speaks to something I have been ruminating on a lot as I enter the second year of my program–what can I do with my MLIS beyond library work? I’m sure this is something that we’ve all pondered. Not to mention, this can add to our arsenal of answers to those pesky “what are you gonna do with that degree?” questions. It is somewhat comforting to know that there are alternative career paths that are available to us, even if we do fully intend to go the traditional librarian route.

Cover photo from Alan Wu on Flickr Commons. Changes were made in adapting this image.  Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.