A Day in the Life: Mary Bonine

This account was written for the MidAtlantic News Research Conference on July 18-19, 1997.

Diary of a "typical" day:
   Until last week, I had a part-time assistant in the library; however,   
I decided that there simply wasn't enought work to warrant a part-time   
employee, and so he has been transferred to another department at The   
Times. This changed my schedule a bit, but it seems to work well.  Here's   
my diary for Tuesday, July 15:
   * 9 a.m.-9:30:  Import stories, begin preparing stories for electronic   
library.
   * 9:30 a.m.-10 a.m.:  An FBI agent came by and needed help tracking   
down the correct name of a hit-and-run victim from 1985. The police   
department had misspelled his name. We both poured through the old   
hit-and-run clip files and then moved on to the microfilm. We finally   
found the correct spelling of the victim's name, and the investigating   
officer.
   * 10 a.m.-noon:  Finished preparing stories and added the paper to the   
electronic library and transmitted stories to Lexis-Nexis.
   * Noon-12:30 p.m.:  Lunch
   * 12:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m.:  Judy Frank, a business reporter, is reviewing   
a book on resume writing. She asked me to test the free software that   
came with the book so she could add my comments to the review. After two   
hours, I returned the disks with the comment "If it's free, it's usually   
for a reason."
   * 2:30 p.m.-3 p.m.:  Discussed my proposal for a follow-up story to   
the HMDA series we ran last year with two reporters who worked with me on   
the original series. Scheduled a time to meet again after they've had a   
few days to think about any angles we missed the first go-round and could   
remedy this time.
   *3 p.m.-4 p.m.:  Moved old movie pictures to another little-used space   
in the library to make more room for old files. Refiled loose files from   
the newsroom and checked to make sure everyone had everything they needed   
from the library. Printed a few stories for a new reporter, and showed   
her how to use the electronic library.
   * 4 p.m.-5 p.m.:  Attended annual award get-together. This is the time   
of year that our management honors those reporters who have won state   
and/or national journalism awards.
   * 5 p.m.-6 p.m.:  Ran Autotrak report for a reporter who needed a   
background check. This was the first time this reporter had used an   
Autotrak report, so I took some time to show him what each line meant.
   * 6 p.m.:  Made arrangements to have someone import stories for me   
while I'm gone. Made one last walk-through in the newsroom, and headed   
out to my car!

Mary Bonine
The Chattanooga Times
Library
(423) 752-3320
mbonine@chattimes.mindspring.com


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