LES GASSER
WHAT'S THE ROLE OF AN ADVISOR?
Basically it's fairly open - giving you advice on courses and curriculum planning is the most common thing I do in this role. Each student has an assigned advisor on entering the program, but that just means that the the advisor is an initial friendly point of contact if you want one. You can get advice from whomever you choose, and frequently you will find that a faculty member other than your assigned advisor will know more about the subject areas you're interested in and about the courses you may want to take. So don't feel constrained by a particular assignment to an advisor at the start. Also don't feel that you have to consult with your advisor if you want to work independently; there's generally no obligation. That said, I'm happy to help where I can.
Occasionally you do need to call upon your official academic advisor to sign a petition or other bureaucratic document. In such a case, yes, you should see your assigned academic advisor.
CURRICULUM AND COURSE ADVISING
A good place to start is the following web page: "What Courses Do I Take? A Worksheet for Master's Students"
If you do want to touch base on course choices or curriculum plans, it will be most efficient if you look into the program requirements, course descriptions, offerings, and timetables before we talk, so you have a better idea of what's required, what you're interested in, and what the options are.
So, please take a look at the web pages on the MS program structure and course offerings, starting here:
http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/gslis/degrees/ms.html
The "Curriculum Description" page will be particularly useful:
http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/gslis/degrees/curriculum.html
This lays out several concentration options. For example, let's say you find you're most interested in Area 3, "Management and Consulting for Information Systems and Services". The courses for that concentration are listed here (i.e., on the same page, farther down):
http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/gslis/degrees/curriculum.html#management
The grouping of LIS courses into the four general areas is meant as a guideline on which courses have relevance to the area---not as a constraint. You're free to take any GSLIS courses for which you have the prerequisites (see the course descriptions for prerequisites).
From that point, the curriculum process consists mostly of looking at the course descriptions (often more is found on instructor web pages), and seeing which ones fit your interests, requirements, and timing. Timetables of LIS course offerings are located here:
http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/gslis/degrees/courses/index.html
Another useful strategy over time is to learn about the teaching and research interests of the faculty, and see which faculty are doing things you are interested in, and have personalities and styles that you appreciate. Then, look for the courses that those faculty teach, and take them - use the person and their interests as the focus, rather than using a subject-based rubric. A GSLIS faculty directory with faculty web page links can be found here:
http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/gslis/people/faculty/index.html
You can of course register for courses in other departments as well; this may take a bit of surveying what's available in other departments. For those courses see the UIUC timetables and course catalogs/offerings for the relevant semester, via the following pages:
http://realtimeweb.cso.uiuc.edu/
MECHANICS OF REGISTRATION
Unfortunately, I know almost nothing about the mechanics of the registration process. Curt McKay (mckay@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu) is the person to ask about that sort of thing. You can register via the web, and if you're an on-campus student you do generally need to actually come to campus to fill out forms and get a photo taken, etc. for your university ID.