ANNUAL REPORT 2009.
Annual report 2009, approved of by the board of our foundation in their meeting on March 6 2010.
PREFACE
In 2009 our foundation had to cope with a very thorough reconstruction of our housing. Part of our collections will be housed in the town of Rhenen
in the near future.
Our premises in Utrecht had to be constricted heavely. Most of our showcases could not be fitted in in the new situation and
had to be rebuild. We also donated more then 20.000 lots
of recent shells to the University of Amsterdam because of severe problems in accommodation. We kept however a representative collection in our
showcases, giving a good impression of all the shell-bearing Mollusca.
Some other collections we will have to dispose off too, like the plio/pleistocene of Florida.
Our educational leaflet is available in Dutch, English and French.
As in previous years the foundation is included in the city guide of Utrecht and in the so
called "Kidsgids". In 2009 there where 8569 visitors on our site.
We were able to assist in a project of a secondary school, giving the students a guided tour along our showcases.
COLLECTIONS
The "Shell of the Year" is Turricula regularis (size 82 mm) found by Dr. R.Hessel in the Oligocene of Winterswijk in the Netherlands.
On December 31st 2009, there were 34.884 records in our database containing 274.174 specimens.
Compared with 2008 a big reduction due to the donation of 20399 records containing 96.290 specimens to the University of Amsterdam.
The effective display area in our 67 showcases in Utrecht amounts to 83 mē,
The storage capacity of our drawers has yet to be estimated when our ongoing reorganisation is finished and the drawers we lent to the University
of Amsterdam have been returned.
HOUSING
The main establishment of our foundation is housed in Utrecht in the premises at the Kievitdwarsstraat 15.
Anno 2010 the following accommodation is available there:
- display of fossil shells in living quarters (40 mē)
- a basement for displaying miscellaneous fossils (43 mē)
- a cellar for displaying recent shells (30 mē)
- a cellar for storage of surplus shells (7 mē)
All in all we now have in Utrecht about 120 mē floor space not counting the space needed for archive and library, wich are in the livingroom of our
director.
EQUIPMENT, FURNITURE AND MATERIALS
Nothing changed this year.
LIBRARY
A small library for naming shells and educational purposes is
available. We can't lend books to the public but give assistance
whenever possible. Our library now contains 1.096 titles (growth 5). Our foundation intends to sell some of our books on recent shells.
CONTACT
We can be reached at the following E-mail address:
fossil.shell.museum@xs4all.nl
Our website :
http://www.fossilshells.nl/
Our website exceeded the allowed 500 MB, so now we have an upgrade to 1000 MB.
PLANS FOR 2010
There will be still more changes in the organisation of our collections. Part of our foundation will be housed in the town of Rhenen.
It is still unclear if we will be able to make collecting trips in 2010.
