Preliminary Conference Agenda

Beliefs held by individuals about the illnesses or problems that affect them have been shown to impact upon the health and other outcomes that they achieve. Online support groups (OSGs) are one source of information used by those with health problems which may influence or determine what they think about their particular issue and how to resolve it. Problem drinking remains a major source of significant costs to society. This article explores whether the discussion forums of alcohol OSGs that do not follow the 12-step philosophy of Alcoholics Anonymous influence the formation of these beliefs, reporting on the outcome of thematic analysis of interviews with 25 users from five groups. It argues that Bates’ ‘Berrypicking’ model of information searching is helpful in illuminating group members’ information seeking activities. It looks at the four key aspects of berrypicking identified by Bates – the nature of the search query, the information ‘domains’ drawn on, the information retrieved and the search techniques used. The study finds that users are typically berrypickers, selecting information from different sources and forming their own interpretations.

A growing body of literature is drawing our attention to on diversity in librarian-ship, arguing for improved diversity through better recruitment, retention, and ca-reer advancement of minority professionals. While much of the discussion about diversity in libraries is taking place in United States, this article attempts to extend the discussion, bringing attention to diversity in Australian librarianship through analysis of Australian library job ads. This article uses content analysis of 96 Australian job ads posted from 22 January to 3 February 2018 in key Australian library job search engines. The analysis focuses on how diversity is reflected in these ads, with a content analysis of wording focused on inviting diversity in terms of ability/disability, ethnicity and language, and gender and sexuality.

Privacy has become a global topic of concern. Meanwhile, it is a

concept that is deeply rooted in local cultures. This paper is conceptual

exploration of privacy in China, it proposes that privacy is a concept yet to be

fully mapped out in Chinese culture. Specifically, this paper uses the proposed

Social Credit System in China as an example of discussion, for this example not

only helps with capturing the urgency and significance of the topic, but also is

particularly provocative in revealing the scope of privacy as a cultural concept.

This paper begins with a brief introduction to the proposed Social Credit

System; then, it discusses what might constitute a cultural perspective to

understand privacy, and cautions the complexity of comparing privacy across

cultures. This paper could serve as a meaningful reflection for both countries

who are concerned with privacy issues in face of large scale application of big

data analytics, and for privacy scholars in cross-culture contexts.