"We're publishing more now than we ever have," says its director. The latest: "New England in Early Printed Maps, 1513 to 1800: An Illustrated Carto-Bibliography."
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This collection of colonial maps represents the latest venture in publishing for the library and adds to its lengthy list of publications — dating back to 1865 — of bibliographies, exhibition catalogues, facsimiles of colonial-era books and collected essays.
"We're publishing more now than we ever have," said Fiering.
"Most books are published entirely by the JCB and, until recently, were marketed and distributed by the library," he continued. "Last year we signed an agreement with Oak Knoll Books in Delaware to distribute our back-list for us. … That's worked out quite well."
One-thousand copies of "New England in Early Printed Maps" are being printed to satisfy orders from cartographers and the library's own mailing list; the leftover stock will be marketed by Oak Knoll.
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he JCB books are usually not intended for the average reader; they are specialized publications for libraries and scholars, many of whom come to the JCB to do their research in history and the humanities. In some instances, ideas for new publications result from the need of those scholars; others spring from conferences. In the case of the new McCorkle book, it was during a conference in Boston in the early 1990s that "someone pointed out there was no good history" of regional maps available, said Fiering.McCorkle, former curator of maps for Yale University Library, subsequently spent more than five years compiling some 455 illustrations and descriptions of 800 maps to produce a reference book to document, map by map and year by year, the history of the mapping of New England before the 19th century.
The JCB publishing projects, as with the McCorkle book, are often ambitious.
"Our most massive project was the six-volume ‘European Americana: A Chronological Guide to Works Printed in Europe Relating to the Americas, 1493-1750,’ which is considered one of the great bibliographical catalogues of the last century, said Fiering. That collection, which sells for about $1,500, took 20 years of "plodding work" to complete, he added, noting that one of its two editors, Dennis Landis, is still on the JCB staff.
In some instances the library has provided facsimile productions of rare, fragile or out-of-print publications. The JCB has, for example, co-published 24 facsimile editions of rare works in maritime history, including volumes of hand-written captains' logs. Some original books and manuscripts in the JCB collection are seldom used without strong justification, Fiering noted.
"All handling puts these items at risk. That's the great dilemma," he explained. "A scholar may want to use a book, but we may give it to him or her with great pain."
The cost of publishing new works or reprinting old ones is typically covered by donations, endowments and grants, according to Fiering.
"We just hope to break even," he said.
On three occasions, the publishing ventures have been recognized by the American Library Association with awards for distinguished exhibition catalogues. There may be additional awards in the future, given the list of more than a dozen publications that are under way or in the planning stages.
"We expect to do more bilingual publishing in upcoming years, although that's more expensive," Fiering said. Other plans include new publishing projects in maritime history, a hemispheric look at natural history, a collection of newspaper essays and a bibliography of Native American language books, among other topics.
In conjunction with the release of McCorkle's book, the JCB is hosting an exhibit spotlighting historic New England maps through May 1.