diff --git a/pkgs/applications/misc/flite/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/misc/flite/default.nix
deleted file mode 100644
index 8a2414ec885..00000000000
--- a/pkgs/applications/misc/flite/default.nix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,29 +0,0 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl }:
-
-stdenv.mkDerivation {
-  name = "flite-1.3-release";
-
-  src = fetchurl {
-    url = http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/flite/packed/flite-1.3/flite-1.3-release.tar.gz;
-    sha256 = "12wanxx57bbqgkag54dlqzv6h2kr9053p0z8mkxs0mqy03vja8lj";
-  };
-
-  buildPhase =
-    ''
-      unset buildPhase
-      ensureDir $out/lib
-      buildPhase
-    '';
-
-  installPhase =
-    ''
-      ensureDir $out/share/flite
-      cp -r bin $out
-    '';
-
-  meta = { 
-    description = "Flite text to speech engine";
-    homepage = http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/flite/download.html;
-    license = "BSD as-is";
-  };
-}
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/flite/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/flite/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6db0dc240ba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/flite/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, pkgconfig }:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+  name = "flite-1.4";
+
+  src = fetchurl {
+    url = "http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/flite/packed/${name}/${name}-release.tar.bz2";
+    sha256 = "036dagsydi0qh71ayi6jshfi3ik2md1az3gpi42md9pc18b65ij5";
+  };
+
+  buildInputs = [ pkgconfig ];
+
+  configureFlags = ''
+    --enable-shared
+  '';
+
+  meta = {
+    description = "A small, fast run-time speech synthesis engine";
+    homepage = http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/flite/index.html; 
+    license = "free-non-copyleft";
+    maintainers = [ stdenv.lib.maintainers.shlevy ];
+  };
+}
+
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 3b7bb2a2501..9aa2c76c79f 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -3019,6 +3019,8 @@ let
 
   flann = callPackage ../development/libraries/flann { };
 
+  flite = callPackage ../development/libraries/flite { };
+
   fltk11 = callPackage ../development/libraries/fltk/fltk11.nix { };
 
   fltk20 = callPackage ../development/libraries/fltk { };
@@ -6117,8 +6119,6 @@ let
       debug = getConfig ["flashplayer" "debug"] false;
     });
 
-  flite = callPackage ../applications/misc/flite { };
-
   freecad = callPackage ../applications/graphics/freecad {
     boost = boost146;
   };