I think one thing to remember is that a lot of people outside of
academe have little real idea of what constitutes research.  I remember
a time when I worked  at a public library and a woman brought in a large
bronze medal she had bought some years before in Paris.  She wanted more
information about it, and being an art history student I agreed to look
around a bit.  I spent about 3 hours tracing the name of the artist and
the approximate date of the medal.  When I told her that the medal dated
to the 19th century, she looked quite disappointed.  Apparently she had
thought that it was much older and thus probably quite valuable.  That was
really her only concern, and she didn't even thank me for the work I had
done.
        Now that I teach I get calls every now and then from people who
think that they have a Rembrandt or whatever.  I tell them to take the
work to the nearest museum with a work by the artist in the collection.
Most of the time they reply, "We did that but they said it wasn't
Rembrandt (or ....)."  Many of these people want others to do their work
for them, and then get upset when the answer isn't what they want.  Oddly
enough several started their "research" at one of the local tv stations,
and hooked an ambitious but not very experienced newsperson to make the
calls for them.

Adrienne DeAngelis
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