See on Humanist posted by Paul Schaffner | PFSchaffner@umich.edu
The University of Michigan announces that under new arrangements worked out between the University Press and the University Library, all components of the online “Middle English Compendium,” including the online version of the Middle English Dictionary, are now freely accessible without fee, password, or any other impediment to access:
http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/m/mec
The MED has hitherto been available only on a subscription or password-protected basis, till the Press recouped its substantial contribution to the original conversion costs. This has now been accomplished, and we are grateful for their agreement that the time has come to liberate it.
It was always our hope and intention to open the MED when we could, both in the general interest of public access (to which as a public university library we are dedicated), and with the expectation that open access will facilitate eventual interlinking amongst sibling dictionaries and between MED and other projects (e.g. online editions, which are now free to link lexical lookups to the appropriate MED entry).
The official press release is here:
http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=3125
