diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 64b39f28b..a8bf724ce 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -11,6 +11,11 @@ AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR(config)
 MC_VERSION
 AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(mc, ${VERSION} )
 
+LIBMC_VERSION="0.0.1"
+LIBMC_RELEASE="1"
+AC_SUBST(LIBMC_VERSION)
+AC_SUBST(LIBMC_RELEASE)
+
 dnl Enable silent rules by default (if yes)
 m4_ifdef([AM_SILENT_RULES], [AM_SILENT_RULES([yes])])
 
@@ -45,6 +50,24 @@ dnl PKG_CHECK_MODULES([CHECK], [check >= 0.9.4])
 
 AC_CHECK_GLIB
 
+AC_ARG_ENABLE([mclib],
+        [AS_HELP_STRING([--enable-mclib],[ Compile shared library libmc.so [no]])],
+        [
+            if test "x$enableval" = "xno" ; then
+                enable_mclib=no
+            else
+                if test "x$enable_shared" = "xno" ; then
+                    AC_MSG_WARN([Build of shared library is disabled. Specify --enable-shared first])
+                    enable_mclib=no
+                else
+                    enable_mclib=yes
+                fi
+            fi
+        ],
+        [enable_mclib=no])
+
+AM_CONDITIONAL([ENABLE_MCLIB], [test x$enable_mclib = xyes])
+
 AC_HEADER_MAJOR
 AC_C_CONST
 AC_SYS_LARGEFILE
diff --git a/lib/Makefile.am b/lib/Makefile.am
index bec2d63c5..f57334b2c 100644
--- a/lib/Makefile.am
+++ b/lib/Makefile.am
@@ -1,6 +1,17 @@
 SUBDIRS = event filehighlight mcconfig search skin tty vfs strutil widget
 
-noinst_LTLIBRARIES = libmc.la
+if ENABLE_MCLIB
+    LIB_VERSION=`echo $(LIBMC_VERSION) | \
+	tr '.' ' '| \
+	while read v1 v2 v3; do echo $$v2':'$$v3':'$$v1; done`
+
+    libmc_la_LDFLAGS=-no-undefined -version-info $(LIB_VERSION) -release $(LIBMC_RELEASE)
+
+    lib_LTLIBRARIES = libmc.la
+else
+    noinst_LTLIBRARIES = libmc.la
+endif
+
 
 SUBLIB_includes = \
 	event.h event-types.h \
@@ -50,3 +61,14 @@ libmc_la_LIBADD = \
 	tty/libmctty.la \
 	vfs/libmcvfs.la \
 	widget/libmcwidget.la
+
+libmc_la_LIBADD += $(MCLIBS) $(SLANGLIB)
+
+if HAVE_GMODULE
+    libmc_la_LIBADD += $(GMODULE_LIBS)
+else
+    libmc_la_LIBADD += $(GLIB_LIBS)
+endif
+
+libmc_la_LIBADD += $(PCRE_LIBS) $(LIBICONV) $(INTLLIBS)
+
diff --git a/src/Makefile.am b/src/Makefile.am
index 0e10e004e..d5ec6b00e 100644
--- a/src/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/Makefile.am
@@ -35,23 +35,13 @@ mc_LDADD = \
 	viewer/libmcviewer.la \
 	filemanager/libmcfilemanager.la \
 	$(DIFFLIB) $(EDITLIB) \
-	../lib/libmc.la
+	$(top_builddir)/lib/libmc.la
 
 if ENABLE_VFS_SMB
 # this is a hack for linking with own samba library in simple way
 mc_LDADD += vfs/smbfs/helpers/libsamba.a
 endif
 
-mc_LDADD += $(MCLIBS) $(SLANGLIB)
-
-if HAVE_GMODULE
-mc_LDADD += $(GMODULE_LIBS)
-else
-mc_LDADD += $(GLIB_LIBS)
-endif
-
-mc_LDADD += $(PCRE_LIBS) $(LIBICONV) $(INTLLIBS)
-
 SRC_mc_conssaver = \
 	cons.handler.c consaver/cons.saver.h