The company was established in August 2002 afterPatrick Spain, who had just soldHoover's, which he had co-founded, boughteLibrary andEncyclopedia.com fromTucows. The new company was called Alacritude, LLC (a combination of Alacrity and Attitude). ELibrary had a library of 1,200 newspaper, magazine and radio/TV transcript archives that were generally not freely available.[3] Original investors included Prism Opportunity Fund of Chicago and 1 to 1 Ventures ofStamford, Connecticut. Spain stated, "There was a glaring gap between free search likeGoogle and high-end offerings likeLexisNexis andFactiva."[4]
Later in 2002, it bought Researchville.com. By 2003, it had increased its archive base to articles from 2,600 publishers. In 2004, it was renamed HighBeam Research. In 2005, it increased its publisher base to 3,500 publishers. In 2006,Oxford University Press,Knight Ridder andThe Washington Post archives were added. In 2008, it was purchased byGale, a subsidiary ofCengage.[5] Highbeam featured many articles by the UK basedTrinity Mirror Group.
Highbeam Research shut down in late 2018 after 16 years. When they did so, all of their content was added toQuestia.[6]
^"Contact Us." HighBeam Research. Retrieved September 24, 2012. "HighBeam Research c/o Cengage Learning 1 North State Street Suite 900 Chicago, IL 60602 USA"
^"About Us".HighBeam Research. Archived fromthe original on July 28, 2011. RetrievedMarch 23, 2012.
Goldsborough, Reid (2004). "HighBeam, can help research that requires verified info".New Orleans CityBusiness (1994 to 2008). Vol. 24, no. 42. pp. 18–19.
"HighBeam Adds Archive Access".Library Journal. Vol. 129, no. 16. p. 28. October 1, 2004.
Goldsborough, Reid (June–July 2004). "When it pays to pay for research".Reading Today. Vol. 21, no. 6. availablehere
Dochartaigh, Dr Niall O. (February 15, 2007)."Other article databases".Internet Research Skills: How To Do Your Literature Search and Find Research Information Online. SAGE. p. 54.ISBN978-1-4462-0399-6.
"HighBeam Research Holds Virtual Open House: Offers Free Research Articles Online to Celebrate Redesigned Website".PR Newswire. December 5, 2011.
B. B. (2006). "In the Spotlight".Information Today. Vol. 23, no. 3. p. 42.
