diff --git a/libguile/load.c b/libguile/load.c
index 6dc05ef37..0f4783bc2 100644
--- a/libguile/load.c
+++ b/libguile/load.c
@@ -211,9 +211,17 @@ scm_init_load_path ()
   SCM path = SCM_EOL;
 
 #ifdef SCM_LIBRARY_DIR
-  path = scm_list_3 (scm_from_locale_string (SCM_SITE_DIR),
-		     scm_from_locale_string (SCM_LIBRARY_DIR),
-		     scm_from_locale_string (SCM_PKGDATA_DIR));
+  env = getenv ("GUILE_SYSTEM_PATH");
+  if (env && strcmp (env, "") == 0)
+    /* special-case interpret system-path=="" as meaning no system path instead
+       of '("") */
+    ; 
+  else if (env)
+    path = scm_parse_path (scm_from_locale_string (env), path);
+  else
+    path = scm_list_3 (scm_from_locale_string (SCM_SITE_DIR),
+                       scm_from_locale_string (SCM_LIBRARY_DIR),
+                       scm_from_locale_string (SCM_PKGDATA_DIR));
 #endif /* SCM_LIBRARY_DIR */
 
   env = getenv ("GUILE_LOAD_PATH");
diff --git a/pre-inst-guile-env.in b/pre-inst-guile-env.in
index e83ca4317..f9dd60179 100644
--- a/pre-inst-guile-env.in
+++ b/pre-inst-guile-env.in
@@ -66,6 +66,11 @@ else
 fi
 export GUILE_LOAD_PATH
 
+# Don't look in installed dirs for guile modules
+if ( env | grep -v -q -E '^GUILE_SYSTEM_PATH=' ); then
+  export GUILE_SYSTEM_PATH=
+fi
+
 # handle LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH (no clobber)
 ltdl_prefix=""
 dyld_prefix=""