Tandem Library was a Topeka school library distributor and binder (formerly Sagebrush), sold to Mackin in 2008. Its books are library-bound issues of other publishers' titles, so they are never first editions.
Tandem Library was the trade name of a Topeka, Kansas firm that supplied books and services to school libraries rather than publishing new work of its own.
The business started in 1965 as American/Econoclad Catalog Card Company, serving the library trade. It moved into library automation software in the late 1990s, buying Nichols Advanced Technologies in 1998 and Winnebago Software in 1999, and renamed itself Sagebrush Corporation in 2003, with a books arm called Sagebrush Education Resources. In 2006 Sagebrush sold its automation business to Follett Software, and the remaining books and library services company became Tandem Library Group in 2007.
In April 2008 the family owners, retiring after nearly forty years in school library book distribution, agreed to sell the sales and distribution assets of Tandem Library Books (formerly Sagebrush Books), with the trademarked name, to Mackin Library Media from 1 May 2008. The bindery was meant to run on separately as Topeka Bindery; after a short closure in 2009 Mackin took it over and reopened it.
Library catalogues record children's and school titles under the Tandem Library name in school and library bindings, sometimes beside the original publisher's paperback of the same book. It sold books, ran a bindery and offered cataloguing and processing for schools.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Tandem Library's practice for the year on your title page.
1960s to 2000s - Tandem Library was a school library supplier and binder, not an originating publisher. A book bearing its name is a library issue of a title first published by another house, so it is never the first edition: look for the original publisher's printing instead. - Prebound books of the kind sold to school libraries are commonly publishers' paperbacks given a tougher hardback library
We track 196 editions published by Tandem Library, 166 of them first editions, across 196 books.
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 21 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.
