Jerry Harasewych wrote, via David Campbell:
"As for American Seashells, it is progressing, although not as rapidly as
some would like.  I do have a day job that requires me to devote my time to
research other than American Seashells.  In terms of geographic coverage, it
will span San Diego northward, include Arctic Canada and Greenland, then
down the coast around Florida and include the entire Gulf of Mexico to the
tip of Yucatan.  Faunas of Cuba, the Bahamas and the rest of the Caribbean
are not included.  Bathymetric distribution spans from the supratidal to
2000 m.
My guess is another 3 years before it is ready for the publisher.  What is
occupying most of my time now is reshooting all of the images, which takes a
lot of time.  I just got a new digital camera {Nikon D1} which speeds things
up enormously.  The old Leaf Lumina took 3-12 minutes per exposure."

This is yet another example of the blurring of the line between
'professional' and 'amateur' (avocational, private, what-have-you) in the
sciences. We have, on the one hand, self-taught collectors who end up
writing professional papers (dinosaur specialist Jack Horner is a well-known
example). On the other hand, we have professionals who have been unable to
find appropriate work in their fields but continue to write and perform
research anyway. And many so-called full-time professionals find their work
redirected by their institution's changing goals into new areas, with the
result that they cannot keep up with the literature or their chosen
research. All the old lines are being blurred, and private collectors are
becoming more needed and appreciated in professional science, although the
situation is very uneven from place to place and from person to person. It
will be interesting to see how this situation develops over the coming
years.

Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama