>#3.  Just out of "curiosity" - do any of you - just off the top of your heads
>- know how many shells (both quantity and specimen count) you currently have?
>
>Harrie Jacobs
>
I have mine numbered sequentially by species (I add letter suffixes for
additional lots). I go back and fill in deleted numbers, so I always know
how many species I have (11,115). This includes subspecies and unidentified
and misidentified ones, of which there are plenty. But I don't readily know
the specimen count. Filling in the deleted numbers, however, can be messy
and requires a "number check" program to periodically check where I have
screwed up and have either duplicate or missing numbers.

The collection is arranged by family, but the order of the families is
dictated by the drawers available at any moment. And different sizes of a
family can be in widely separated cabinets--not an ideal arrangement.

I need help with fossils: since at first I had very few, I put them all in
one drawer and started a "family" called "Fossils". This is now a very bad
arrangement since many families are jumbled together and species-names are
duplicated in various families. Should I catalogue the fossils in with
their Recent families?
John Wolff
2640 Breezewood Dr.
Lancaster, PA 17601, U.S.A.