I think amateur collector sounds good, as malacologist is not real profession, but I have
scientific shell collection with self collected and self classified material, traded material,
which I had only a few times to correct personally, as there were created to much
forms for me or some errors. I want to be called as my mother too self educted malacologist.
I think that's a good term. Also the museums can't really work without amateurs, and the
large sector of the entomology at our museum only has two employes  professional entomologists, and on  the beetles and Wanzen (other animals like beetles, sorry but I don't know
the English expression) are working amateurs too but wellknown in Europe and in the world.
with best shelling greetings
Helmut from Innsbruck


Helmut "Helix" Nisters
Franz-Fischer-Str. 46
A-6020 Innsbruck / Austria / Innsbruck
phone and fax: 0043 / 512 / 57 32 14
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
web:    www.netwing.at/nisters/
           (please visit it and sign guestbook)
always looking for shellgrit from all over the world
for my nearly 89 years aged mother Irmgard
to makes happy and to keep up her health

office:
Natural History Department of the
Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum Innsbruck
Feldstrasse 11 a
A-6020 Innsbruck / Austria / Europe
phone: 0043 / 512 / 58 72 86 - 37
web: www.tiroler-landesmuseum.at
        (specimen donations to the
         Tiroler Landesmuseum molluscs collection
         are always appreciated)

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We had a discussion awhile back on what to call the person who collects
shells without having a degree or license to do so. They aren't
'professional malacologists' and they aren't 'shell dealers'. We used to
call them 'amateur collectors' but for some reason that term is going out of
favor these days. 'Hobbyist' is inadequate to describe some of these people,
who may be extremely knowledgeable and sometimes have very large
collections. 'Conchologist' may be uncomfortably formal for collectors at
the other end of the spectrum, who may be very un-knowledgeable and have no
desire to study (ology) their shells (conch). 'Non-professional' is negative
and sounds like an insult ('unprofessional').

Paleontologist Earl Manning (Tulane University) suggests the phrase 'private
collector' as a generic term. That is apt, since there are private art
collectors, and they buy and sell art occasionally like most shell
collectors without losing their 'amateur' status. Once in a long while,
indeed, an art collector is admiringly called an 'amaTEUR' with the
cultivated French pronunciation emphasizing the original meaning, 'lover (of
the arts)', but no one considers this an insult. Flattery, perhaps.

So, how about it, Conchlers? Would you like to be called 'private
collectors', and occasionally, if you're really good at it, 'amaTEURS'?

Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama