Part of The Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum's mission is to promote collection-based research on shells and mollusks, with emphasis on Southwest Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. The Shell Museum assists scholars and citizen scientists from around the world by answering questions, providing interlibrary loans, and by offering both physical and Web access to our extensive shell collection, when needed. Our Science Director, Dr. José H. Leal, is a leading malacologist and also the Editor-in-Chief of The Nautilus, a peer-reviewed journal publishing articles on diverse aspects of the biology, ecology, and systematics of mollusks.