Sunday, July 12, 2015

Beginning my Research - Sorting through the CRAAP

I began researching my topic of banking regulations this week.  The first thing I learned was that “banking regulations” is way too broad of a topic!  Starting with searching in Google I found four or five different ways to search for banking regulations narrowing the search each time.  First just “Banking Regulations”, then adding the word “changes”, then trying to set a time frame of after 2008, then trying a name I know.  The search parameters of language being English and the United States were actual very important and I would not have thought to limit those without the advanced search because my thought is that they were so obvious.  My last searches were focused more on the Dodd-Frank Act.  This Act has brought about many, many changes to banking and I think it will be a good focus point.  Searching banking media also led me to the ABA or American Bankers Association which seems to be full of information on this topic.  Applying the processes I learned this week I found myself looking at dates of publications and then searching separately the names of authors, which I did not do as much before.  I think that getting further into the research of Dodd-Frank Act will help me focus on my topic.  I am already leaning towards the Act and community banking, there seems to be problems there that interest me.

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Welcome...to my research!

Hello and welcome to my blog.  My name is Tim Hocking and this blog will act as a journal for my LBSU 302 class at Brandman University.  I have attended Brandman on and off for the past 3 years.  My hopes are to graduate with a degree in Marketing in the next year or so.  I currently work in commercial banking.  As far as career aspirations in the field of banking I either plan on further developing my current role then moving to either entertainment banking or simply a higher position in the commercial sector where I can take on larger relationships.  After earning my degree I have also considered leaving the banking industry and possibly taking over the family accounting business.

Research is a part of my daily/weekly work.  At work I must research companies all the time whether it be for prospecting new clients and learning about their company or looking up news or current trends in industries that my exists clients are involved in.  That and being in the banking industry there have been many changes in regulations and procedures since 2008 that require some research in order to stay in compliance.  The thing about my research is that I mainly use it for conversation with clients or to stay up-to-date with what must be done according to regulations but I rarely have to write about it.  My hopes are to get better at citing information and get better at writing my research down in a way that when reading it can be followed as opposed to my current way of writing some notes on Post-Its in order to remind myself to mention a topic or do a certain task.  The ACRL (Association of College & research Libraries’) defines information fluency as “the ability to recognize when information is needed and to have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information”.  I would like to think that I am pretty good at locating and evaluating information and the last part of using if effectively is a matter of opinion I suppose.  Most, if not all of the research I do now would fall under what looks to fall under what the ACRL mentions as “research as inquiry”. 

I hope that through this class and through this blog I improve all aspects of research to gain more knowledge.