diff -Naur old/SConstruct new/SConstruct
--- old/SConstruct	2018-08-24 16:24:45.000000000 +0300
+++ new/SConstruct	2018-11-05 03:07:07.000000000 +0300
@@ -327,6 +327,10 @@
         'prefix',
         'Set this to the directory where Cantera should be installed.',
         defaults.prefix, PathVariable.PathAccept),
+    PathVariable(
+        'libdirname',
+        'Set this to the directory where Cantera libraries should be installed.',
+        '', PathVariable.PathAccept),
     EnumVariable(
         'python_package',
         """If you plan to work in Python, then you need the ``full`` Cantera Python
@@ -1465,10 +1469,9 @@
 # *** Set additional configuration variables ***
 # **********************************************
 
-# Some distributions (e.g. Fedora/RHEL) use 'lib64' instead of 'lib' on 64-bit systems
-if any(name.startswith('/usr/lib64/python') for name in sys.path):
-    env['libdirname'] = 'lib64'
-else:
+# Some distributions use 'lib64' (e.g. Fedora/RHEL) or something else instead of 'lib' on 64-bit systems.
+# If user didn't set 'libdirname' configuration variable set it to default value 'lib'
+if not env['libdirname']:
     env['libdirname'] = 'lib'
 
 # On Debian-based systems, need to special-case installation to