It seems to me that there has been some confusion in this thread between
"general public" and the occasional non-professional wishing to visit
museum collections. Museum collections, including herbaria, storage areas
of art museums, etc., are by definition closed to the public. I have seen
only one large professional museum that used to display its entire mollusk
collection, under old-fashioned glass-topped cases, the Museum
Oceanographique de Monaco in Monte Carlo (next door to the casino). The
collection consisted (at least until the mid-1980s when I last visited)
mostly of deep-sea mollusks collected by Prince Albert in the last decades
of the nineteenth century and first decades of twentieth, and studied by
Dautzenberg and Fischer. In any case, my point is that there is a big
difference between letting the visiting public roam through the range
*versus* accomodating for the occasional visit of a collector (provided
that arrangements are made for the visit, staff is available to chaperone
the visitor, etc.) Given the smaller demand for this kind of visit in
smaller museums, it is only natural that potential visitors of the
non-professional kind will, generally speaking, find more simpathy from
staff of this type of museum. However, the argument that a museum
collection should be open to the public because that particular museum is
funded with public money is obviously flawed. Anyway, tooting my own horn
now: the Shell Museum on Sanibel is becoming famous for its great displays
on many aspects of malacology (about 34 exhibits) and its molluscan
collection that includes marine, terrestrial, fossil, and freshwater
mollusks from all over, but concentrating on Florida and its surroundings.
Pre-arranged group tours do come through the collection area, with suitable
interpretation included. Come visit, and I will give your own private tour
of the collection. It happens all the time. And this is for Eduardo: ainda
espero a tua visita!

Cheers from very hot and very humid SW Florida,

Jose
__________________________________________________________________________
José H. Leal, Ph.D.
Director, The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum
Editor, THE NAUTILUS
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http://www.uwp.edu/academic/biology/bmsm
3075 Sanibel-Captiva Road
Sanibel, FL 33957 USA
(941) 395-2233; fax (941) 395-6706