diff --git a/module/VuFind/src/VuFind/XSLT/Import/VuFind.php b/module/VuFind/src/VuFind/XSLT/Import/VuFind.php
index 2a507eaed2c77cfffe84a1ff6690584d69b8b676..4862649f466a7a3ea3a0ee1cabfda80476c28ce7 100644
--- a/module/VuFind/src/VuFind/XSLT/Import/VuFind.php
+++ b/module/VuFind/src/VuFind/XSLT/Import/VuFind.php
@@ -366,7 +366,9 @@ class VuFind
     {
         static $articles = ['a', 'an', 'the'];
 
-        $text = strtolower(trim($in));
+        $text = is_callable('mb_strtolower')
+            ? mb_strtolower(trim($in), 'UTF-8')
+            : strtolower(trim($in));
 
         foreach ($articles as $a) {
             if (substr($text, 0, strlen($a) + 1) == ($a . ' ')) {