I think that the difficulties expressed on the list serve regarding museums is more an outcome of external political factors than academic turf battles.  Museum budgets across the country are being slashed by local and federal governments.  Museums are being forced to rely on private donations more and more.  The result is that as budgets are cut, research staff are either being laid off or not replaced upon retirement and restructuring exhibits is prohibitively expensive.  As a result, museums are reluctant to take on large collections/projects that they might not be able to properly curate, protect, insure, and display.

That said, I would recommend the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF-Gainsville campus as a great place to see shells (mostly Neogene) in a museum setting.

CF

---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 08:21:07 -0400
>From: John Varner <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: privacy & collections
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>
>   Shell collections have value in many regards.
>   Trained as a scientist, I fully appreciate the value
>   of locale data and how population distributions
>   offer insights into ecology and local and global
>   changes in climate, fisheries, etc.  As I am
>   involved in medicine, I am also intrigued with
>   specific families and what in-depth studies of these
>   organisms can teach (convergent/divergent evolution,
>   conotoxins and the learning capacity of octopi are
>   three personal favorites).  But it is shear
>   aesthetic appreciation of form, patterning and color
>   that strikes the deepest chord in me.  This aspect
>   of shells and shell  collecting resonates with
>   people, and is perhaps easiest to share with the
>   widest segment of the general public, regardless of
>   their age or educational background (or lack there
>   of).  It is unfortunate when academic turf
>   battles and exigencies like concerns over insurance
>   and security complicate the process, or worse,
>   render it impossible.
>   - John Varner
>
>     ----- Original Message -----
>     From: Chad Allen Ferguson
>     To: [log in to unmask]
>     Sent: Friday, June 02, 2006 3:47 PM
>     Subject: Re: privacy & collections
>     As a scientist, I think that your ideas about
>     sharing your collections are intriguing...  The
>     images might be useful for ID purposes in a
>     reference catalog, if someone wanted to do all of
>     the molluscs found in each state's waters for
>     example.  What would be more useful from
>     scientific perspective, would be taxa lists and
>     abundances from each collection along with GPS
>     coordinates and ancillary environment of
>     collection data.  Now to make this really useful,
>     all shells would have to be counted and would have
>     to come from true bulk collections with attention
>     paid to both big and small size fractions, not
>     just the attactive or rare ones.
>
>     I can tell you that a museum will probably not be
>     interested in private collections unless they will
>     be given on "permanent loan" as gifts because of
>     the work involved in cataloging and also because
>     of the need to insure valuable specimens.
>
>     Chad Ferguson
Chad Ferguson
500 Geology/Physics
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, OH  45221-0013
(513) 556-3732
(513) 265-6197-cell
(513) 556-6931-fax

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