From: "Hutchinson, Alvin" <[log in to unmask]> Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2017 17:55:14 +0000 Pardon the cross-posting: I have a number of saved searches with HighWire press and get results emailed to me regularly, based on a search I’ve done. But lately I have gotten this with the email alerts: IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR HIGHWIRE PORTAL ALERT SUBSCRIBERS This alert email is based on Highwire's portal search. We plan to disable both Highwire portal search & ALL associated Highwire portal alerts from Jan 31 2017. If there are particular types of email alerts (eg Table of Contents, Keyword, Author, etc) that you still wish to receive, then we recommend that you sign up to receive those alerts on your preferred journal\book sites. This will enable you to get the most personalised experience from your favourite journal\book sites. The first thing I should say is, I’m not complaining. This is/was a free service and HighWire has the right to discontinue it at any time for any reason. I have two questions—one specific and one general: Specifically: Does anyone know the reason for this? Was it too expensive to support in terms of technology or staff, etc.? I don’t want to set up keyword searches on all individual journal titles or even the publisher sites but is that the only alternative at this point? And Generally: Does anyone suspect that Google Scholar will also one day stop their alerts service? (Or stop altogether?) Again, it is offered at no charge so I can’t complain. But I wonder about how Google makes money from GS and if one day the powers-that-be will decide that although the cost is low, they can shave some costs by removing it from their portfolio of services. As I heard one of my esteemed colleagues say one time regarding another similar service: “the cost is low, but it’s not *zero*” -Alvin Alvin Hutchinson Smithsonian Libraries 202.633.1031