在網際網路的蓬勃發展與美國數位圖書館計畫的帶動下，有關數位圖書館的研究已經受到全球性的重視，由於所有的數位圖書館計畫都希望所供的數位館藏以及資訊能夠排除語言障礙，提供全球性且不分種族的服務，因此近來有關多國語文問題（Multi-lingual）對數位化圖書館的影響深受重視。包括多語識別、處理與顯示，以及多語及跨語搜尋檢索等，不論業界或學界都有不少人在進行研究。而國內在有關數位圖書館研究逐漸開啟之際，若也能針對多國語文問題深入討論，在中文之外也能考慮各國語文的區域特性，如加強英、日、韓等語文資源的館藏與資訊檢索技術，相信也能建立出特色。基於作者知識範圍有限，本文將嘗試對數位化圖書館中多國語文問題作一粗淺討論，之後從多語檢索點，來看中文資訊檢索的特性與問題，藉此拋磚引玉，期待未來有更多深入的探討，使得國內數位圖書館的研究能更加國際化。

　　　　　With the advancements of the Internet and the Digital Library Initiatives in the U.S.A.,the research of digital library has been flourished around the world. Recently the increasing availability of networked access to multilingual text collections within such an environment has drawn much attention in the development of cross-language retrieval technology. This article is used to structure a comprehensive discussion of published research and known commercial practice in the western world on the topic. In addition to the focus on the characteristics of Chinese text collections, some brief observations of the potential for multilingual information retrieval are also discussed in details.