> I am wondering how everyone organizes their collections, within Genus. Alphabetical, by sub-genus,
> by location (Indo-Pacific, Carribean, etc.). I work with Olividae primarily, and can't decide how to
> place my shells in their drawers. I have been doing alphabetical, but as you all know, Olividae keeps
> morphing and I am wondering if there is a better system. I look forward to your ideas. I am sure
> museums and major collections have a system, or they would forever be moving shells around!

This depends to a great extent on the size of the collection, the room
for cabinets and the number of cabinets available.

If you have a more general interest, then by locality becomes too
space-consuming.

For olivids (sensu lato; I am having trouble accepting Olivellidae as
a a family) space isn't perhaps such a problem, but personally I'd
not use this. I'd arrange it alphabetically by genus (note that
Zemira, Pseudoliva etc are NOT olivids!), and alphabetically be
species within genus. There are no valid subgenera of Oliva, so this
simplifies things perhaps. Subspecies... you could use these to make
specimens easioer to find, though fewer and fewer taxonomists accept
this level of nomenclature.

My own collection is split into sections thus:
New Zealand Recent
NonNZ Recent
Fossil (but nonNZ fossils ought to be separated out).

Within these major groupings the specimens are arranged taxonomically
by class and family. Families with numerous species are arranged
alphabetically by genus and species. Families with fewer species are
arranged just by genus.

There are sections with each class for unidentifieds, but such
specimens only occur when they are very poorly-preserved fossils.

As I use map cabinets, there are specimens which just won't fit into
the shallow drawers, and these must be housed elsewhere, generally in
no order at all if they're in glass cases.

--
Regards
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand
Fossil preparator
Mollusc, Toyota & VW van fan

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