How to set up an alternate R packages library in a writable location on Ubuntu

I am having problem installing some R packages on Ubuntu OS. I have tried a number of suggested solutions on various blogs and SO answers, but the problem persists.

The default for installing packages is 'lib = "/usr/lib/R/library"'

Using Commands

source("http://bioconductor.org/biocLite.R")
biocLite('affycoretools')

      

        
        
        
      

    

Failed because it is 'lib = "/usr/lib/R/library"'

not a writable location (note that I have sudo access). So I want these packages to be installed in this writable location:

lib='/home/b3053674/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.2'

      

        
        
        
      

    

So the first thing I try:

biocLite('affycoretools,lib=lib)

      

        
        
        
      

    

It seems to work, but now:

    library(affycoretools) 
    #try specifying location
    library(affycoretools,lib=lib)
    #try alternative keyword - just in case
    library(affycoretools,lib.loc=lib)

      

        
        
        
      

    

all fail <<26>.

Then I tried this answer , which assumes that I am creating a variable R_LIBS_USER

. So I used export R_LIBS_USER="/home/b3053674/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.2"

and tried again, but it didn't seem to do anything. I also tried putting this variable in a file in the home directory called .Renviron

, which also does nothing. I tried to point the new library path to the R_LIBS

environment variable , but again nothing. I've also tried several other solutions regarding functions .libPaths()

and .Library

/ variables, but no joy ...

I guess this type of configuration is pretty common for people who know R, but everything I try seems to fail, so my question is, can anyone give me clear and concise instructions on how to create an alternate write library for mine bioconductor packages in R on Ubuntu 16.04.1

OS?