About museums dealing with requests for information from the public:
This must vary greatly from institution to institution.  In my twelve years
in invertebrate paleontology at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadel-
phia, I have seen it all.  I field questions from tots on up--serious
amateurs to certifiable crackpots.  I try to give everyones question serious
consideration.  I am referred all the inquiries about fossils and (help!)
rocks and minerals.  I have had to gently tell people that the hunk of
bottle green glass slag they picked up is glass slag and not a softball-
sized emerald that would have made them rich beyond their wildest dreams,
I have had to tell people that the lines in the quartz cobble do not mean
that they have found fossil brains, and I have even taken home and viewed
5 minutes of videotape of a rock in a stream (to big to bring in).  I don't
ridicule anyone.  I know that the other collection managers here are also
as helpful to the public as they can be.
Elana Benamy
Collections Manager, Invertebrate Paleontology
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
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