Corporate History

Ingram Library Services Inc. is a company of book lovers with decades of experience in the industry. Our origin can be traced to Tennessee Book Company--a school textbook depository founded in Nashville, Tennessee in 1935. A family-owned business specializing in distribution, Ingram acquired Tennessee Book Company in 1964, and by 1970, Ingram's operations had expanded to offer trade books to bookstores and libraries.

By that time, advances in technology enabled publishers to greatly increase the number of titles produced. As readers embraced the new variety and diversity, bookstores and libraries struggled to keep their inventories and circulation materials up-to-date. In 1972, Ingram responded by introducing weekly inventory-information updates on microfiche. This service put the company on track to become the leader in information services and technology, in addition to becoming the largest wholesale distributor of book product in the world.

Ingram’s library business continued to grow. In 1987, Ingram Library Services transformed from a specialized department to a full-service company devoted to being every library’s ultimate resource for collection management. Today, Ingram offers a wide array of materials in addition to books, including music and video products. We also continue to add and expand services designed to help libraries preserve precious resources and maximize efficiency.

Helping libraries find new ways to succeed earned Ingram the reputation as the service innovator in the industry. It is a reputation we prize and will continue to uphold by striving to set the standard in library services.