Die Sammlung Max Kirmsse - eine „hidden collection“ zwischen Sonderpädagogik, Disability Studies und Intersektionalität. Konzepte für einen angemessenenbibliothekarischen Umgang

In an attempt to secure the future existence of libraries as physical spaces while confronting the challenges of the World Wide Web and Electronic Media, librarians utilize the benefits of the Internet to make the unique features of their institutions, such as special holdings, more widely accessible. The collection of Max Kirmsse, spread between the University Library of the Philipps-University Marburg and the Archive for Special Needs Education (Heilpädagogisches Archiv) at the Humboldt-University Berlin, is arguably one of the most fascinating collections in Germany. Kirmsse (1877-1946) was a progressive Special Needs Education teacher from Germany who collected German as well as international works on disability and social exclusion from the 17th century until the demise of the Nazi-Regime with its mass murderings of disabled people. The work describes the history, particularity and interdisciplinary character of the collection; reconstructs the institutional logics and scientific interests which led to the descriptive cataloguing and electronic indexing of its major part in Marburg and introduces its first web presentation. It further encourages student exhibition projects with the collection and the virtual junction of its parts in Marburg and Berlin. Based on media observation, the work also demonstrates that disability is a prominent feature of the city of Marburg and its university and argues that even though the collection offers an extraordinary potential for publicity, it may be difficult to realize due to the marginalized subject of disability itself. Therein, ultimately, lies the strongest argument for greater visibility of this unique collection.