diff --git a/src/aiori-HDF5.c b/src/aiori-HDF5.c
index 5d629e1..5c0f139 100755
--- a/src/aiori-HDF5.c
+++ b/src/aiori-HDF5.c
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ static IOR_offset_t HDF5_Xfer(int, void *, IOR_size_t *,
                            IOR_offset_t, IOR_param_t *);
 static void HDF5_Close(void *, IOR_param_t *);
 static void HDF5_Delete(char *, IOR_param_t *);
-static void HDF5_SetVersion(IOR_param_t *);
+static char* HDF5_GetVersion();
 static void HDF5_Fsync(void *, IOR_param_t *);
 static IOR_offset_t HDF5_GetFileSize(IOR_param_t *, MPI_Comm, char *);
 static int HDF5_Access(const char *, int, IOR_param_t *);
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ ior_aiori_t hdf5_aiori = {
         .xfer = HDF5_Xfer,
         .close = HDF5_Close,
         .delete = HDF5_Delete,
-        .set_version = HDF5_SetVersion,
+        .get_version = HDF5_GetVersion,
         .fsync = HDF5_Fsync,
         .get_file_size = HDF5_GetFileSize,
         .statfs = aiori_posix_statfs,
@@ -447,20 +447,23 @@ static void HDF5_Delete(char *testFileName, IOR_param_t * param)
 /*
  * Determine api version.
  */
-static void HDF5_SetVersion(IOR_param_t * test)
+static char * HDF5_GetVersion()
 {
+  static char version[1024] = {0};
+  if(version[0]) return version;
+
         unsigned major, minor, release;
         if (H5get_libversion(&major, &minor, &release) < 0) {
                 WARN("cannot get HDF5 library version");
         } else {
-                sprintf(test->apiVersion, "%s-%u.%u.%u",
-                        test->api, major, minor, release);
+                sprintf(version, "%u.%u.%u", major, minor, release);
         }
 #ifndef H5_HAVE_PARALLEL
-        strcat(test->apiVersion, " (Serial)");
+        strcat(version, " (Serial)");
 #else                           /* H5_HAVE_PARALLEL */
-        strcat(test->apiVersion, " (Parallel)");
+        strcat(version, " (Parallel)");
 #endif                          /* not H5_HAVE_PARALLEL */
+  return version;
 }
 
 /*
diff --git a/src/aiori-S3.c b/src/aiori-S3.c
index 4836dd1..326b5bc 100755
--- a/src/aiori-S3.c
+++ b/src/aiori-S3.c
@@ -213,11 +213,8 @@ ior_aiori_t s3_emc_aiori = {
 	.finalize = S3_finalize
 };
 
-static int is_initialized = FALSE;
 
 static void S3_init(){
-	if (is_initialized) return;
-	is_initialized = TRUE;
   /* This is supposed to be done before *any* threads are created.
    * Could MPI_Init() create threads (or call multi-threaded
    * libraries)?  We'll assume so. */
@@ -225,8 +222,6 @@ static void S3_init(){
 }
 
 static void S3_finalize(){
-	if (! is_initialized) return;
-	is_initialized = FALSE;
   /* done once per program, after exiting all threads.
  	* NOTE: This fn doesn't return a value that can be checked for success. */
   aws_cleanup();
diff --git a/src/aiori.c b/src/aiori.c
index 8ec7130..b886487 100644
--- a/src/aiori.c
+++ b/src/aiori.c
@@ -117,7 +117,12 @@ char* aiori_get_version()
   return "";
 }
 
+static int is_initialized = FALSE;
+
 void aiori_initialize(){
+	if (is_initialized) return;
+	is_initialized = TRUE;
+
   /* Sanity check, we were compiled with SOME backend, right? */
   if (0 == aiori_count ()) {
           ERR("No IO backends compiled into aiori.  "
@@ -132,6 +137,9 @@ void aiori_initialize(){
 }
 
 void aiori_finalize(){
+  if (! is_initialized) return;
+  is_initialized = FALSE;
+
   for (ior_aiori_t **tmp = available_aiori ; *tmp != NULL; ++tmp) {
     if((*tmp)->finalize){
       (*tmp)->finalize();