diff --git a/.dockerignore b/.dockerignore
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a31aedb8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.dockerignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+build.*
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 6b3a8cbd..d9e0a937 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -45,6 +45,8 @@ if(TAGS)
 		)
 endif()
 
+option(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS "build shared libraries over static libraries" ON)
+
 #find dependencies
 include(GNUInstallDirs)
 find_package(PkgConfig)
@@ -102,7 +104,7 @@ option(BUILD_RANDOMACCESS "build the random access code" OFF)
 option(BUILD_DOCKER_CONTAINERS "build docker containers for testing" OFF)
 if(BUILD_DOCKER_CONTAINERS)
   
-  foreach(CONTAINER Centos Fedora Ubuntu Travis)
+  foreach(CONTAINER Centos Fedora Ubuntu Travis CentosPackaged)
     set(BuildSentinel ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/${CONTAINER}-built)
     set(Dockerfile docker/Dockerfile-${CONTAINER})
     string(TOLOWER "sz${CONTAINER}" CONTAINER_TAG)
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 0328f49e..ef6c9a60 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -123,6 +123,8 @@ cmake --build .
 sudo cmake --install .
 ```
 
+Please note, building static libraries is incompatiable with building the python wrappers, and is building the python wrappers is disabled if `-DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF`
+
 An example usage file can be found in `example/test.py`
 
 Additional documentation can be found using the `help` function in python.
diff --git a/docker/Dockerfile-CentosPackaged b/docker/Dockerfile-CentosPackaged
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d2a7fee9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/Dockerfile-CentosPackaged
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+FROM centos:7
+RUN yum update -y && \
+    yum install -y epel-release && \ 
+    yum install -y \
+        cmake3 \
+        CUnit-devel \
+        ctags \
+        gcc \
+        gcc-c++ \
+        fftw-devel \
+        netcdf-devel \
+        make \
+        swig3 \
+        python-devel \
+        numpy  && \
+    yum clean all
+COPY . /build/
+WORKDIR /build/
+RUN rm -rf build && \
+    mkdir -p build && \
+    cd build && \
+    cmake3 .. && \
+    make -j 
diff --git a/swig/CMakeLists.txt b/swig/CMakeLists.txt
index 1649233a..aa1b6c3b 100644
--- a/swig/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/swig/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ official policies, either expressed or implied, of Robert Underwood.
 
 cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.14)
 find_package(SWIG)
-if(SWIG_FOUND)
+if(SWIG_FOUND AND BUILD_SHARED_LIBS)
   include(UseSWIG)
 
   find_package(Python COMPONENTS Interpreter Development NumPy)
diff --git a/sz/CMakeLists.txt b/sz/CMakeLists.txt
index 51bb1375..248cfdf8 100644
--- a/sz/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/sz/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-add_library (SZ SHARED 
+add_library (SZ
   src/ArithmeticCoding.c
   src/ByteToolkit.c
   src/CacheTable.c