diff --git a/IkiWiki.pm b/IkiWiki.pm
index 83679243f..7c55764be 100644
--- a/IkiWiki.pm
+++ b/IkiWiki.pm
@@ -362,7 +362,7 @@ sub getsetup () {
 		type => "string",
 		default => "",
 		example => "$ENV{HOME}/.ikiwiki/",
-		description => "extra library and plugin directory",
+		description => "extra library and plugin directorys. Can be either a string (for backward compatibility) or a list of strings.",
 		advanced => 1,
 		safe => 0, # directory
 		rebuild => 0,
@@ -559,6 +559,20 @@ sub getsetup () {
 	},
 }
 
+sub getlibdirs () {
+	my $libdirs;
+	if (! ref $config{libdir}) {
+		if (length $config{libdir}) {
+			$libdirs = [$config{libdir}];
+		} else {
+			$libdirs = [];
+		}
+	} else {
+		$libdirs = $config{libdir};
+	}
+	return @{$libdirs};
+}
+
 sub defaultconfig () {
 	my %s=getsetup();
 	my @ret;
@@ -701,14 +715,14 @@ sub checkconfig () {
 sub listplugins () {
 	my %ret;
 
-	foreach my $dir (@INC, $config{libdir}) {
+	foreach my $dir (@INC, getlibdirs()) {
 		next unless defined $dir && length $dir;
 		foreach my $file (glob("$dir/IkiWiki/Plugin/*.pm")) {
 			my ($plugin)=$file=~/.*\/(.*)\.pm$/;
 			$ret{$plugin}=1;
 		}
 	}
-	foreach my $dir ($config{libdir}, "$installdir/lib/ikiwiki") {
+	foreach my $dir (getlibdirs(), "$installdir/lib/ikiwiki") {
 		next unless defined $dir && length $dir;
 		foreach my $file (glob("$dir/plugins/*")) {
 			$ret{basename($file)}=1 if -x $file;
@@ -720,7 +734,9 @@ sub listplugins () {
 
 sub loadplugins () {
 	if (defined $config{libdir} && length $config{libdir}) {
-		unshift @INC, possibly_foolish_untaint($config{libdir});
+		foreach my $dir (getlibdirs()) {
+			unshift @INC, possibly_foolish_untaint($dir);
+		}
 	}
 
 	foreach my $plugin (@{$config{default_plugins}}, @{$config{add_plugins}}) {
@@ -753,8 +769,8 @@ sub loadplugin ($;$) {
 
 	return if ! $force && grep { $_ eq $plugin} @{$config{disable_plugins}};
 
-	foreach my $dir (defined $config{libdir} ? possibly_foolish_untaint($config{libdir}) : undef,
-	                 "$installdir/lib/ikiwiki") {
+	foreach my $possiblytainteddir (getlibdirs(), "$installdir/lib/ikiwiki") {
+		my $dir = defined $possiblytainteddir ? possibly_foolish_untaint($possiblytainteddir) : undef;
 		if (defined $dir && -x "$dir/plugins/$plugin") {
 			eval { require IkiWiki::Plugin::external };
 			if ($@) {
diff --git a/doc/plugins/install.mdwn b/doc/plugins/install.mdwn
index 900662eec..8ae1c8bde 100644
--- a/doc/plugins/install.mdwn
+++ b/doc/plugins/install.mdwn
@@ -8,9 +8,11 @@ inside the perl search path. For example, if your perl looks in
 `/usr/local/lib/site_perl` for modules, you can locally install ikiwiki
 plugins to `/usr/local/lib/site_perl/IkiWiki/Plugin`
 
-You can use the `libdir` configuration option to add a directory to the
+You can use the `libdir` configuration option to add directories to the
 search path. For example, if you set `libdir` to `/home/you/.ikiwiki/`,
-then ikiwiki will look for plugins in `/home/you/.ikiwiki/IkiWiki/Plugin`.
+then ikiwiki will look for plugins in `/home/you/.ikiwiki/IkiWiki/Plugin`. This
+configuration option can be either a string (for backward compatibility) or a
+list of strings (to add several directories to the search path).
 
 Ikiwiki also supports plugins that are external programs. These are
 typically written in some other language than perl. Ikiwiki searches for