diff --git a/dspace-xmlui/dspace-xmlui-webapp/src/main/webapp/themes/Mirage/lib/xsl/aspect/artifactbrowser/collection-list.xsl b/dspace-xmlui/dspace-xmlui-webapp/src/main/webapp/themes/Mirage/lib/xsl/aspect/artifactbrowser/collection-list.xsl
index a46a4d8eb5..c688d80efe 100644
--- a/dspace-xmlui/dspace-xmlui-webapp/src/main/webapp/themes/Mirage/lib/xsl/aspect/artifactbrowser/collection-list.xsl
+++ b/dspace-xmlui/dspace-xmlui-webapp/src/main/webapp/themes/Mirage/lib/xsl/aspect/artifactbrowser/collection-list.xsl
@@ -61,10 +61,10 @@
                     <xsl:text>]</xsl:text>
                 </xsl:if>
             </div>
-            <xsl:if test="$data/dim:field[@element = 'description' and @qualifier='abstract']">
+            <xsl:variable name="abstract" select="$data/dim:field[@element = 'description' and @qualifier='abstract']/node()"/>
+            <xsl:if test="$abstract and string-length($abstract[1]) &gt; 0">
                 <div class="artifact-info">
                     <span class="short-description">
-                        <xsl:variable name="abstract" select="$data/dim:field[@element = 'description' and @qualifier='abstract']/node()"/>
                         <xsl:value-of select="util:shortenString($abstract, 220, 10)"/>
                     </span>
                 </div>
diff --git a/dspace-xmlui/dspace-xmlui-webapp/src/main/webapp/themes/Mirage/lib/xsl/aspect/artifactbrowser/community-list.xsl b/dspace-xmlui/dspace-xmlui-webapp/src/main/webapp/themes/Mirage/lib/xsl/aspect/artifactbrowser/community-list.xsl
index eba6f3e5d9..6e1f334c57 100644
--- a/dspace-xmlui/dspace-xmlui-webapp/src/main/webapp/themes/Mirage/lib/xsl/aspect/artifactbrowser/community-list.xsl
+++ b/dspace-xmlui/dspace-xmlui-webapp/src/main/webapp/themes/Mirage/lib/xsl/aspect/artifactbrowser/community-list.xsl
@@ -62,10 +62,10 @@
                     <xsl:text>]</xsl:text>
                 </xsl:if>
             </div>
-            <xsl:if test="$data/dim:field[@element = 'description' and @qualifier='abstract']">
+            <xsl:variable name="abstract" select="$data/dim:field[@element = 'description' and @qualifier='abstract']/node()"/>
+            <xsl:if test="$abstract and string-length($abstract[1]) &gt; 0">
                 <div class="artifact-info">
                     <span class="short-description">
-                        <xsl:variable name="abstract" select="$data/dim:field[@element = 'description' and @qualifier='abstract']/node()"/>
                         <xsl:value-of select="util:shortenString($abstract, 220, 10)"/>
                     </span>
                 </div>
diff --git a/dspace/CHANGES b/dspace/CHANGES
index a23d0f8d94..453417c50c 100644
--- a/dspace/CHANGES
+++ b/dspace/CHANGES
@@ -31,6 +31,9 @@ found online at: https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/DSPACE/DSpaceContributors
 (Ben Bosman)
 - [DS-808] jqueryUI javascript gets imported without corresponding CSS
 
+(Ben Bosman)
+- [DS-809] Support for empty dc.abstract dim field in Internet Explorer
+
 1.7.0
 =====
 (Oleksandr Sytnyk)