LIVEJOURNAL
From LIS 460 Summer 2007
What Is It
Livejournal or LJ is a virtual community where users can create a blog. Anybody can create a free livejournal account. A user has the option of upgrading to a paid account, which has additional features. Since Livejournal's creation in 1999, Danga Interaction, boasts 13,352,955 journals and communities. The number of journals increases on a daily basis. Liverjournal was originally created by Brad Fitzpatrick in 1999 and it is a open source server software.
For more information on Livejournal's history, please go the the wikipedia entry concerning Livejournal. Wikipedia
Livejournal Features
Livejournal has a variety of features, such as the following: (1) Users may add pictures to posts and also have a photo gallery, which they may make private or public. (2) Users can join different communities or create their own. For example, someone might have an interest in baking, so they start a community or join one that discusses the topic in great detail. (3) Friends can be made through communities or by browsing other user's friend lists. You can add the friend, but they have the option of either adding you or not. (4) Posts can be made private or public. (5) Comments may be screened by the journal's owner. (6) RSS feeds can be added to the blog. (7) Users can create a profile and avatar. (8) Various account levels also allow the user to customize their journal. (9) There are premade blog templates for individuals that may not be HTML savvy. (10) Users may search for friends by similar interests, religion, or even region.
Again, these are just a few of the features that are available on Livejournal. To find out more, please visit LJ's website Livejournal
How To Use Livejournal in the School Library
Livejournal can be used like any other blogging software that is available on the Internet, such as Tabulas or Blogger. Librarians that are not extremely tech savvy can use premade blog templates to get started with their blogging right away. Posts can be made public so that teachers, parents as well as students can all look at the blog. A librarian may post an entry about new books or resources that are available in the library. She can also provide links to other useful websites for students and teachers on the blog. The blog can inform the community about events in the school library, such as book fairs, author visits and technology workshops. The posts can also have pictures and allow visitors to post comments.
Students may also be encouraged to keep a blog for classroom activities, but there may be a bit of concern over the security of Livejournal. Students should be advised not to put any personal information in their profile or journal that could identify them due to the scary presence of online predators, which may put them in danger. Librarians, teachers and parents should monitor the journals and perhaps screen the comments. Livejouranl can have "friends only" posts, where only friends of the individual that has the blog can see the entries and this may help with some of the security concerns. Additionally, Livejournal now has an Abuse Team, which handles violations in communities and blogs.
