diff --git a/easybuild/framework/easyblock.py b/easybuild/framework/easyblock.py
index e92bc87450..a6e67eccf1 100644
--- a/easybuild/framework/easyblock.py
+++ b/easybuild/framework/easyblock.py
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@
 from easybuild.tools.package.utilities import package
 from easybuild.tools.repository.repository import init_repository
 from easybuild.tools.toolchain import DUMMY_TOOLCHAIN_NAME
-from easybuild.tools.systemtools import det_parallelism, use_group
+from easybuild.tools.systemtools import det_parallelism, get_shared_lib_ext, use_group
 from easybuild.tools.utilities import remove_unwanted_chars
 from easybuild.tools.version import this_is_easybuild, VERBOSE_VERSION, VERSION
 
@@ -100,6 +100,11 @@
 
 MODULE_ONLY_STEPS = [MODULE_STEP, PREPARE_STEP, READY_STEP, SANITYCHECK_STEP]
 
+# constants for library checking (TODO: should probably be configurable)
+LIB_DIRS = ['lib', 'lib64']
+LIB_STATIC_SUFFIX = 'a'
+LIB_SHARED_SUFFIX = get_shared_lib_ext()
+
 
 _log = fancylogger.getLogger('easyblock')
 
@@ -1688,6 +1693,20 @@ def _sanity_check_step_common(self, custom_paths, custom_commands):
         else:
             self.log.info("Using specified sanity check paths: %s" % paths)
 
+            def gen_library_paths(name, suffix):
+                """little helper function to generate tuple of paths of a single library and given suffix"""
+                libpaths = []
+                for dir in LIB_DIRS:
+                    libpaths.append(os.path.join(dir, "%s.%s" % (name, suffix)))
+                return tuple(libpaths)
+
+            # transform specified libs into simple file paths
+            for lib in paths.pop('shared_libs', []):
+                paths['files'].append(gen_library_paths(lib, LIB_SHARED_SUFFIX))
+            for lib in paths.pop('static_libs', []):
+                paths['files'].append(gen_library_paths(lib, LIB_STATIC_SUFFIX))
+
+        # check sanity check paths
         ks = sorted(paths.keys())
         valnottypes = [not isinstance(x, list) for x in paths.values()]
         lenvals = [len(x) for x in paths.values()]
diff --git a/test/framework/easyblock.py b/test/framework/easyblock.py
index cb34331de3..877a464948 100644
--- a/test/framework/easyblock.py
+++ b/test/framework/easyblock.py
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@
 from easybuild.tools.build_log import EasyBuildError
 from easybuild.tools.config import get_module_syntax
 from easybuild.tools.filetools import mkdir, read_file, write_file
+from easybuild.tools.systemtools import get_shared_lib_ext
 from easybuild.tools.modules import modules_tool
 
 
@@ -647,6 +648,31 @@ def test_patch_step(self):
         self.assertTrue("and very proud of it" in read_file(os.path.join(toydir, 'toy.source')))
         self.assertEqual(read_file(os.path.join(toydir, 'toy-extra.txt')), 'moar!\n')
 
+    def test_sanity_check_paths_for_libraries(self):
+        """Test generation of sanity check paths for libraries."""
+        test_easyconfigs = os.path.join(os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)), 'easyconfigs')
+        ec = process_easyconfig(os.path.join(test_easyconfigs, 'toy-0.0.eb'))[0]
+        # specify that libtoy.a and libtoy.so should also be there, either in lib or lib64
+        ec['ec']['sanity_check_paths'].update({
+            'shared_libs': ['libtoy'],
+            'static_libs': ['libtoy'],
+        })
+
+        from easybuild.easyblocks.toy import EB_toy
+        eb = EB_toy(ec['ec'])
+        eb.fetch_step()
+        eb.extract_step()
+        eb.configure_step()
+        eb.build_step()
+        eb.install_step()
+
+        libdir = os.path.join(eb.installdir, 'lib')
+        mkdir(libdir)
+        write_file(os.path.join(libdir, 'libtoy.%s' % get_shared_lib_ext()), 'shared lib')
+        write_file(os.path.join(libdir, 'libtoy.a'), 'static lib')
+
+        eb.sanity_check_step()
+
     def test_extensions_sanity_check(self):
         """Test sanity check aspect of extensions."""
         test_ecs_dir = os.path.join(os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)), 'easyconfigs')