The Middle English Compendium comprises three easily accessible and interconnected digital reference works: the text of the Middle English Dictionary in searchable electronic form (e-MED), a revised and expanded searchable electronic version of the MED’s bibliography (HyperBibliography of ME), and a modest but growing on-line ‘Corpus of Middle English Verse and Prose.’ The Hyper-Bibliography, linked to both the ME texts and the electronic Dictionary, stands at the center of the project and potentially at the hub of a larger set of linguistic and lexicographic tools for the study of early English; the searchable e-MED, long a desideratum of Middle English studies, offers unprecedented access to the MED’s vast collection of analysed Middle English. All three components are encoded in SGML, indexed on a central server, and consulted via a web interface. About one third of the print Dictionary (P-T) and one third of the bibliography entries will be contained in the first installment of the Compendium, available in June of 1998. About one half of the materials should be available by the end of 1998, with a full working version by June of 1999 and a refined version by the end of 1999. Updates will continue thereafter to accommodate the ongoing publication of the print Middle English Dictionary as well as any necessary correction and revision.

Access to the MEC is exclusively via the Web, and is free till the end of 1998. Access in 1999 and thereafter will be by calendar-year subscription. Institutional subscriptions will cost $750 per calendar year, and will be accepted by the University of Michigan Press beginning in June of 1998. There are no plans yet for individual subscriptions.

The Middle English Compendium is a Digital Library Initiative of the University of Michigan Libraries in collaboration with the University of Michigan Press, Department of English, and Office of the Vice President for Research, with the cooperation of the Middle English Dictionary. It is funded by the University of Michigan and the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities.

http://www.hti.umich.edu/mec/

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~pfs/med/mec.html

• To communicate with the editors:

• To subscribe (see information at http://www.press.umich.edu/Ordering/OrderInfo.html):

Assoc. Professor of English, University of Michigan,

formerly Editor, Middle English Dictionary

Director, Digital Library Production Service, U of M

Director, Humanities Text Initiative, U of M

SGML Systems Librarian, U of M

Digital Production Librarian, U of M; formerly Editor, MED

David Ruddy

Research Assistant, U of M; formerly Editor, MED

Technical Library Assistant, U of M

Michelle Miller-Adams

Digital Publications Mgr & Editor, University of Michigan Press