>    I'm currently in the enviable position at Elon University (North
> Carolina, USA) of haveing to purchase several books for the
> University's library collection (they are actually begging me to
> purchase more books).
> The University is a small University (about 5,000 students) is
> growing fast with a very active biology department. I have an
> extensive conchological library myself but wanted to get a sence of
> maybe 8 books for the collection.  They already blundered once and
> purchased the 1954 copy of American Seashells rather than than the
> 1974 edition I had requested. That notwithstanding we have
> Abbot/Dances's Compendium and beyond that the typical Kingdom of the
> Seashells, a few East Coast/NC field guides, and a few old picture
> books.  But I was wondering what other books that you would see as
> great editions to a collection of this type (I would note that there
> currently are no scholars of Conchology at Elon).

The bivalve volumes of the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology are
the most recent global genus-level survey of that class.  There will be
a meeting this summer that will discuss work on a revision of it, but
in the meantime it is quite useful.

For student needs, keys such as the Burch land and freshwater volumes
are very handy, though also a bit dated.  For research, perhaps it
would be possible to get some historic journal sets, as well as
checking whether they are willing to subscribe to current journals
(usually a separate budget item from books).

Regional volumes can be hard to find, but useful.  Elon being in North
Carolina, Hugh Porter's NC marine checklist would be good.  I didn't
spot any specific field studies abroad programs on the Elon website,
but if there's a place that students are likely to do field work, any
books on that region would be useful.

North Carolina also has good fossil mollusk faunas in the coastal
plain.  There are some classic USGS Professional Papers (Stephenson,
Gardner, Kellum, etc.) and earlier work, especially by Conrad, plus the
Smithsonian Lee Creek volumes.  Joe Carter's Fossil Collecting in North
Carolina and the North Carolina Fossil Club books give some good basic
information on these.

> Also I heard a rumor that there was going to be a new edition to
> American Seashells, any truth to that?

It's being worked on by Dr. Harasewych, but without any support from
the Smithsonian and thus is an activity for his "spare time".  I
believe it was COA that helped fund a camera a little while ago, which
is helping greatly with the illustrations.

--
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections Building
Department of Biological Sciences
Biodiversity and Systematics
University of Alabama, Box 870345
Tuscaloosa AL 35487-0345  USA

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