I'll try to keep a long story short, but some background might be of help.

I turned to Arizona State University in hope they might have a shell collection that I could use to help me identify some of my shells. I was told  there is one, but that it hasn't been treated well, and if I was interested, they could use some help getting it somewhat in order. I am an amateur, but know a little more than the average disinterested collector, so I am taking a stab at it.

The collection was donated by the widow of Chester W. Melville, of Chestnut Hill, Mass. When he died in 1964 it was his wish that the collection be donated to an institution of some sort where it might be considered unique and of value. What better place than the middle of Arizona in the Sonoran Desert?  This collection was estimated by the Smithsonian Museum as having about 30,000 shells. Many of those are land and fresh-water snails. Many are Liguus snails from Cuba and Florida. This I have gathered by inventorying the books and other resources that were included with Mr. Melville's collection. There are also land/fresh water snail shells from the Philippine Islands and other parts of the world. I believe many (hopefully most) are by now correctly reconciled with their labels, but we also want to update the taxa, and correct any outdated information.Well, when the collection was delivered by the moving company in 1966, the movers took the keys to the shell cabinets with them, and had removed the labels from the collection drawers, and placed them in envelopes. There were no malacologists at ASU at that time, and there aren't any, now.  Over the years several members of staff have managed to get some help reconciling the shells with the labels, but I don't know how correct they were. The last effort was in 1989. Since then the collection has been stored in a basement, and was only brought back to light a few months ago when the Life Science Dept. moved into a newer building. The new director of the Life Science collections at ASU, Nico Franz, wants to get this collection up on a database and make it available to the public. Unfortunately, his background lies in "bugs", not malacology.

Here's a major problem. I have no knowledge of land and fresh water snails whatsoever, and the new director of the collections wants me to provide names of books, websites, or any resources we can use or purchase to help us get the collection organized and make it an interesting and valuable asset. The collection included several books written in the mid-'30's by Paul Bartsch and Carlos De La Torre about some of the snails of Florida and Cuba.

My question is this: What is out there that is more current and possibly even more specific and others that might be more expansive?  I am overwhelmed by the amount of "stuff" that is online, and mostly too cumbersome and often unrelated to what we need. If any of you can guide me to resources or are yourself studying these beautiful creatures, please respond to me via e-mail at <[log in to unmask]>.

Thanks,
Dale

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