This April, thousands of organizations received word that their federal grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) were abruptly terminated as part of a broader effort to reduce federal spending in certain program areas, including arts and culture. Yet, these organizations are doing vital work that may not be possible without these grants. The Middle English Text Series (METS) here at the University of Rochester (UR) is one such initiative staring down the reality of what this funding cut could mean for their work.
The METS Mission
While medieval texts can be challenging to access, they continue to attract significant interest. Founded in 1990 by Professor Russell Peck of the English Department, METS exists to provide "authoritative and accessible editions of the widest possible range of literary production… to the widest possible readership.” METS is the largest online collection of medieval texts in the world, with all their editions fully open access. They also produce affordable print editions, ranging from $25 to $40 (a steal compared to most academic texts).
Executive Director Anna Siebach-Larsen explains, “We work to make sure it’s welcoming, it’s for everybody and it’s about everybody... We work hard to include underrepresented voices, groups, and languages. We don’t just publish mainstream things like Chaucer.” METS primarily publishes works in Middle English, Anglo-Norman, and Latin. “We recently commissioned our first Welsh edition and Old Norse edition,” adds Pamela Yee, Managing Editor. They’re also expanding beyond ‘literary’ texts to publish medical texts and cookbooks. Ultimately, this diversity of genres helps to “expand our understanding of what people were doing and who was doing it,” says Siebach-Larsen.
In 2020, METS became a publication of the Rossell Hope Robbins Library. The River Campus Libraries system also supports METS’ work and generously funded their recent digital redesign.
It’s impossible to overstate the vast difference the digital redesign has made. The new site is far more user-friendly, with an excellent reader view similar to what people see on a Kindle or tablet. But the biggest changes are unseen by the average user: tons of metadata to identify everything, with encoding on all texts, so anyone interested in finding and using these texts can do so easily. Yee explains that there are more viewing options, too: “If they want just the Middle English, they can see that. They can see glosses (partial translations of more difficult words), and they can see the notes.” Transparency, sustainability, and accessibility were the main goals of the redesign.
So what do people actually do with all these Middle English texts?
METS editions are widely used in both expected and surprising ways. Yee says scholars often approach her at conferences to share that they wouldn’t be able to teach what they teach without METS.
Additionally, these Middle English editions are used for performances, including, as General Editor Thomas Hahn notes, “a forty-minute opera.” He once stumbled upon a plethora of Arthurian fanfiction bearing titles like “The Ivy Crown,” “What Women Want,” “Rose of Ragnelle,” “The Damosel Yonder,” and others. Hahn shares that “the ultimate source for all of these was the METS edition of “Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle” that I edited in a collection of romances 30 years ago. [The fanfiction] recovers and reduplicates the generative power that medieval romance demonstrated in its own time.”
Beyond the realm of fanfic, Yee reports that a Spanish scholar requested permission to translate editions into Spanish, so a few Spanish editions now circulate. Memorable uses for Siebach-Larsen include a German band using a METS recording in their music and an individual creating a role-playing game based on a METS edition. There is no shortage of interest in the Middle Ages and an abundance of creative engagement with these medieval texts.
The Global Reach of METS
METS reaches readers in the United States and beyond. With more than half a million hits annually, METS has readers in 135 different countries. According to Hahn, “in 2022, users in China and India outpaced those in Canada and Australia, and the top ten most frequent language groups and sources included the Philippines, Russia, Turkey, and Japan.” Siebach-Larsen notes that they’re expanding in the Middle East and South America as well.
Hahn says, “METS has dramatically increased the University of Rochester’s global footprint as an influential source of ground-breaking research and innovative sharing of knowledge.”
Farewell to Federal Funding
“The NEH is repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the President’s agenda… Your grant’s immediate termination is necessary to safeguard the interests of the federal government, including its fiscal priorities,” read a letter Hahn and Siebach-Larsen received via email on April 3. With no warning from the NEH, this loss came as a shock. “I felt a deep and abiding sense of worry for our users and for our staff,” Siebach-Larsen reflects.
NEH funding was not new to METS. They received their first NEH grant in 1995 and continued to receive NEH funding almost continuously. Thanks to this sponsorship, they tripled their publication rate. The people at the heart of METS are most threatened by the loss of this grant: it was the only source of funding for the salaries of METS’ Managing Editor and all of the student staff.
Working on METS is an excellent professional development and experiential learning opportunity for students, teaching them skills like project management, publishing, navigating difficult conversations, collaboration, digital humanities, programming, and more.
Without this funding, METS may no longer be able to continue. In the worst case scenario, “we wouldn’t be able to publish any new editions, the website would go down. It would affect thousands of people across the country and the world. People rely on our open access editions and that resource could be gone,” Yee says.
Siebach-Larsen comments, “This is a moment to ask ourselves what it is that we value as a society.”
METS Needs YOU
Maurini Strub, Interim Vice Provost and Interim Andrew H. & Janet Dayton Neilly Dean of the Libraries, says, “METS reminds us why libraries are long-haul institutions: we sustain the work that others rely on, even when the landscape shifts. We are proud to house and support METS because it reflects the best of what libraries and universities can offer—high-impact, mission-driven work that makes a difference in the world.”
Join us in making a world of difference for the scholarly and public audiences who count on METS. Making medieval texts available to all remains METS’ top priority, but they can’t do it without your help. Donations directly support METS staff so this important work can continue. Donate here today.
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