What Reviewers Look For in the Library and Information Science Master's Statement
This independent writing-feedback rubric looks at whether your statement explains your professional purpose and plans for graduate training; it is not an institutional rubric. When the supplied prompt requests preparation, it also looks for an experience connected to learning; when it requests them, it considers your reasoning about an LIS issue and your contribution to shared work. Clear sentences, organized paragraphs, and a complete draft help readers follow your argument.
What We Check
Whether the reason for choosing LIS work explains the contribution intended.
Whether an attributable experience supports readiness to learn professional LIS practice.
Whether the account reasons through a professional issue, challenge, opportunity or value when requested, as in the UBC and Kent prompts.
Whether the applicant explains an attributable contribution to shared work when the main prompt asks for leadership, management or collaboration.
Whether learning aims connect to the proposed program.
Mistakes We Flag
- Interest in books without a professional purpose
- Saying you love books or value a program’s reputation does not explain the LIS work you want to do or the contribution you hope to make.
- Job titles or skills without explanation
- Naming a career goal, duty, or skill is not enough on its own. When preparation is requested, explain what you did, what you learned, and how the experience prepared you to learn LIS practice.
- Broad claims about change or ethics
- When the prompt asks you to discuss an LIS issue, statements such as “libraries must adapt” or an ethical slogan need reasoning about the issue and who or what it affects. Explain a response when the prompt calls for one; issue analysis does not always need a proposed response.
- Taking credit for a group outcome without your role
- When the prompt asks about leadership, management, or collaboration, readers need to understand your own responsibility and how you worked with others. If the prompt asks about future plans, explain the contribution or responsibility you intend to take on.
- Listing program resources without a learning plan
- Courses, practica, faculty, or other resources matter only when you explain what you would learn from them and how that training connects to your goals.
How this rubric reads your essay
- Built from published reader guidance — the sources are listed below.
- Scored per section against defined criteria, not general impressions.
- Calibrated for consistent scoring, so a better draft shows up in the score.
References
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need formal library work experience?
No. This rubric does not require formal library employment: academic work, paid or unpaid work, community activity, and deliberate observation can all show preparation, and paid and unpaid work have equal standing. Each program sets its own entry and experience requirements.
Do I need to discuss preparation, an LIS challenge, or leadership experience?
Follow the supplied prompt. Preparation is considered when the prompt requests it or when no prompt is supplied; a broadly titled statement of purpose does not automatically request it. Discuss LIS issues or leadership, management, and collaboration when requested. A prompt may ask for prospective leadership or management plans, so a past episode is not always required.
Do I need to propose a response to an LIS issue?
Only if the supplied prompt calls for one. When issue discussion is requested, explain the professional issue, challenge, opportunity, or value and its relationship to people, materials, or practice; analysis alone can be sufficient when no response is requested.
Do I need to name faculty or propose original research?
Not unless the supplied prompt requires them. Program fit can be shown through a course area, approach, practicum, or learning environment; named faculty, original research, and program uniqueness are not otherwise required.
Prepare your application
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