The Hein Company is rooted in a hundred-year-old legal publishing tradition that began in 1920 with entrepreneur Fred O. Dennis. Along with the help of his nephew, William S. Hein Sr., Dennis served U.S. law libraries by selling law books, law forms, out-of-print government documents, and other law-related reprints. After 27 years, William S. Hein Sr. began his own legal publishing venture—William S. Hein & Co., Inc.—with his wife, Ilene.

The company has since thrived by listening to libraries’ requests, first for out-of-print books and journals, then for used books and original publications, and later in the 20th century, for microform as a low-cost alternative for housing and preserving large print collections.

Toward the end of the 20th century, the advent of the internet and rise in computer-assisted research presented a new challenge—meeting customer desires for electronic resources. Hein embarked on a mission to create a version of its material that saved shelf space, was easy to use, and made more efficient use of valuable research time, all while matching the authority of the print version. Digital imaging was ultimately the answer, allowing Hein to create near-perfect facsimiles of print publications that could then be distributed by CD-ROM. By the year 2000, Hein’s experience in preservation and digital imaging, combined with its title rights and close relationship with libraries, left the company uniquely poised to create an online image-based library. Thus, HeinOnline was born.