diff --git a/bin/runjava b/bin/runjava
index 8697f4fb0..b59686b4e 100755
--- a/bin/runjava
+++ b/bin/runjava
@@ -55,8 +55,9 @@ if (defined $libpath) {
 my $classpath = "-classpath $root/dist/classes";
 
 # add zip and jar files from our lib/ directory and the system lib/ directory
-my @dirs = ( "$root/lib", "/usr/share/java" );
+my @dirs = ( "$root/lib", $ENV{"JAVA_LIBS"} );
 foreach $dir (@dirs) {
+    next unless (defined $dir);
     if (opendir(DIR, $dir)) {
         foreach $lib (grep { /.(zip|jar)/ && -f "$dir/$_" } readdir(DIR)) {
             $classpath .= ":$dir/$lib";
diff --git a/tests/bin/runjava b/tests/bin/runjava
index 07c4fd0b5..4209d264d 100755
--- a/tests/bin/runjava
+++ b/tests/bin/runjava
@@ -57,9 +57,11 @@ if (defined $libpath) {
 # put everything in our class path
 my $classpath = "-classpath $root/tests/dist/classes:$root/dist/classes";
 
-# add zip and jar files from our lib/ directory and the system lib/ directory
-my @dirs = ( "$root/lib", "/usr/share/java" );
+# add zip and jar files from our lib/ directory and the global Java
+# libraries directory
+my @dirs = ( "$root/lib", $ENV{"JAVA_LIBS"} );
 foreach $dir (@dirs) {
+    next unless (defined $dir);
     if (opendir(DIR, $dir)) {
         foreach $lib (grep { /.(zip|jar)/ && -f "$dir/$_" } readdir(DIR)) {
             $classpath .= ":$dir/$lib";