diff --git a/src/calibre/library/__init__.py b/src/calibre/library/__init__.py
index d622a75b3d..cec9c3a4e2 100644
--- a/src/calibre/library/__init__.py
+++ b/src/calibre/library/__init__.py
@@ -5,7 +5,8 @@ __copyright__ = '2008, Kovid Goyal <kovid at kovidgoyal.net>'
 def db(path=None, read_only=False):
     from calibre.db.legacy import LibraryDatabase
     from calibre.utils.config import prefs
-    return LibraryDatabase(path if path else prefs['library_path'],
+    from calibre.utils.filenames import expanduser
+    return LibraryDatabase(expanduser(path) if path else prefs['library_path'],
             read_only=read_only)