International Risk Management Institute, Inc., now known as IRMI, was founded in 1978 primarily to educate risk managers, insurance agents/brokers, underwriters, and other insurance professionals by conducting seminars. In conjunction with these programs, risk and insurance publications were developed to provide what they felt was much-needed information in an evolving industry. So popular were these publications that, by the mid-1980s, publishing had become their primary focus. At that time, they formulated a strategic plan to develop a practical and detailed reference library covering all facets of property and casualty insurance and risk management. Originally, these were printed and housed in three-ring binders for which they provided quarterly supplements. The loose-leaf supplements were shrink-wrapped and shipped to subscribers, who then inserted the new and replacement pages into their binders.