From the SWISS BULLETIN: The Mule Media Archive

 By Josefine Jacksch  

 History of the Mule Media-Archive  

Shortly after the foundation of the «Interessensgemeinschaft für das Maultier» IGM (Mule Association of Switzerland) in 1989, an archive was established. The first part contains association-related documents such as minutes of meetings and assemblies, preparations for association activities, etc.  

In addition, newspaper clippings, reports from horse magazines and other magazines, scientific articles and books were collected. VHS video cassettes, DVDs, CDs and individual pictures and photo albums completed the collection.  

One of the goals, that the IGM has set itself, is to collect information about mules and hinnies. Literature about mules and hinnies was hard to find at the time of its foundation, the Internet was not yet so productive and not everyone had access to it or knew how to deal with it. There were few donkey books and thousands of horse books, but no German mule books on the modern book market.  

When Josefine took over the collection in 2008, it took up about 118 inches of shelf space; today it has grown considerably.  

Expansion  

In 2010 some members of the IGM founded the association Mule Museum Switzerland. According to the foundation’s statutes, its purpose includes “to ensure knowledge of the past, present and future of the mule and hinny through appropriate measures, structures and organization and to enable access to a broad public in the form of a museum”. Thus the collection activity was intensified in order to build up a good library next to the mule equipment.  

This year a library software was purchased to simplify the administration of the collection. Titles are now being added on an ongoing basis. The joint collection of IGM and “Mule Museum Switzerland” is called “Mule Media Archive” and is accessible to all mule friends. Many of the documents are stored in pdf and printed form. Currently texts and films include more than 2700 titles in 12 different languages. They range from children’s stories to scientific papers, from short newspaper clippings to  almost 1000-page works. The texts are from over 2000 years and cover topics from all over the world such as love stories, packer and military manuals, travel reports, music notes, genetic studies, craft instructions, archaeological excavation, mule trade, western novels, mule keeping, coloring books, development aid, towpaths, mule training, war missions, etc. Titles, that only concern donkeys, zebras or horses, will also be included in the archive, if they may be of interest to mule friends. Such a library of mule-specific topics is certainly unique in the world.  

Technical details  

The archive is physically not accessible to the public, it is located in the private rooms of the archivist. However, online research is possible for everyone via https://www.biblino.de/index.php?id=281 or enter “Maultier Medien-Archiv” in your browser. The online catalogue is only available in German, as the software is a German product (a translation aid is attached to this text). For this reason, images of book covers are only displayed in the online catalogue if they appear on amazon.de. The software provider may change this at a later date.  

Books in printed form can only be borrowed within Switzerland. Texts in PDF format can be sent depending on the rights.  

Books, articles or films are gladly accepted from donors in order to further expand the Mule Media World.  

If you have any questions about the archive or are looking for special literature on mules or hinnies, please contact the archivist by e-mail: bulletin@ig-maultier.ch or info@maultier-museum.ch