Interface language plays a key role in making repositories accessible to everyone. When users do not sufficiently share the language of a repository's interface, content can become difficult or even impossible to find, despite being present in the system. In addition to translation, technical details such as search configuration, character handling, and interface layout can have a major impact on how well a repository works for different languages. Because most DSpace development happens in English-speaking environments, language-related challenges outside that context are often underestimated. Over time, DSpace has added support for many interface languages, which can give the impression that multilingual support works flawlessly out of the box. In practice, many institutions still struggle—especially when working with non-Latin alphabets, right-to-left languages such as Arabic or Hebrew, or combinations of multiple languages. This presentation looks at common multilingual scenarios in DSpace, from adding a single non-English language to supporting multiple languages with different writing directions. Using real-world examples, it highlights frequently overlooked issues around search configuration, language-specific behaviour, interface rendering, and metadata. While the topic is technical by nature, the focus is on clear explanations that are accessible to both technical and non-technical audiences.
Deroost et al. (Tue,) studied this question.