diff --git a/r/R/zzz.R b/r/R/zzz.R
index be952a6b4f7..21bc504360e 100644
--- a/r/R/zzz.R
+++ b/r/R/zzz.R
@@ -15,6 +15,19 @@
 # specific language governing permissions and limitations
 # under the License.
 
-#' @useDynLib arrow, .registration = TRUE
 #' @importFrom Rcpp sourceCpp
 NULL
+
+NAMESPACE <- environment()
+
+.onLoad <- function(libname, pkgname) {
+  dll <- library.dynam("arrow", pkgname, libname)
+
+  for(routine in getDLLRegisteredRoutines(dll)$.Call) {
+    assign(routine$name, routine, envir = NAMESPACE)
+  }
+}
+
+.onUnload <- function(libpath) {
+  library.dynam.unload("arrow", libpath)
+}
diff --git a/r/configure b/r/configure
index 10045d3c5ec..11bd4bcd1be 100755
--- a/r/configure
+++ b/r/configure
@@ -43,11 +43,9 @@ fi
 # Note that cflags may be empty in case of success
 if [ "$INCLUDE_DIR" ] || [ "$LIB_DIR" ]; then
   echo "Found INCLUDE_DIR and/or LIB_DIR!"
-  PKG_CFLAGS="-I$INCLUDE_DIR $PKG_CFLAGS"
   PKG_LIBS="-L$LIB_DIR $PKG_LIBS"
 elif [ "$PKGCONFIG_CFLAGS" ] || [ "$PKGCONFIG_LIBS" ]; then
   echo "Found pkg-config cflags and libs!"
-  PKG_CFLAGS=${PKGCONFIG_CFLAGS}
   PKG_LIBS=${PKGCONFIG_LIBS}
 elif [[ "$OSTYPE" == "darwin"* ]]; then
   if [ "$(command -v brew)" ]; then
@@ -56,22 +54,21 @@ elif [[ "$OSTYPE" == "darwin"* ]]; then
     curl -sfL "https://jeroen.github.io/autobrew/$PKG_BREW_NAME" > autobrew
     source autobrew
   fi
-  PKG_CFLAGS="-I$BREWDIR/opt/$PKG_BREW_NAME/include"
   PKG_LIBS="-L$BREWDIR/opt/$PKG_BREW_NAME/lib $PKG_LIBS"
 fi
 
-PKG_CFLAGS="$PKG_CFLAGS -DARROW_R_WITH_PARQUET"
-
-# For debugging
-echo "PKG_CFLAGS=$PKG_CFLAGS"
-echo "PKG_LIBS=$PKG_LIBS"
-
 # Find compiler
 CXXCPP=$("${R_HOME}"/bin/R CMD config CXXCPP)
 CXX11FLAGS=$("${R_HOME}"/bin/R CMD config CXX11FLAGS)
 CXX11STD=$("${R_HOME}"/bin/R CMD config CXX11STD)
 CPPFLAGS=$("${R_HOME}"/bin/R CMD config CPPFLAGS)
 
+PKG_CFLAGS="-I../inst/include -DARROW_R_WITH_PARQUET"
+
+# For debugging
+echo "PKG_CFLAGS=$PKG_CFLAGS"
+echo "PKG_LIBS=$PKG_LIBS"
+
 # If libarrow uses the old GLIBCXX ABI, so we have to use it too
 if [ "$ARROW_USE_OLD_CXXABI" ]; then
   $PKG_CFLAGS="$PKG_CFLAGS -D_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=0"
diff --git a/r/data-raw/arrow_headers.R b/r/data-raw/arrow_headers.R
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..b81e3901261
--- /dev/null
+++ b/r/data-raw/arrow_headers.R
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+library(fs)
+library(magrittr)
+library(glue)
+
+copy_headers <- function(dir) {
+  origin <- glue("../cpp/src/{dir}")
+  dest   <- glue("r/inst/include/{dir}")
+
+  # copy all files
+  try(dir_delete(dest), silent = TRUE)
+  dir_copy(origin, dest)
+
+  # only keep headers
+  dir_ls(dest, glob = "*.h", invert = TRUE, all = TRUE, recurse = TRUE, type = "file") %>%
+    file_delete()
+
+  message(glue("{n} header files copied in `{dest}`", n = length(dir_ls(dest, recurse = TRUE))))
+  invisible()
+}
+copy_headers("arrow")
+copy_headers("parquet")
diff --git a/r/man/table.Rd b/r/man/table.Rd
index 4d93ff385b5..fbf9632a03a 100644
--- a/r/man/table.Rd
+++ b/r/man/table.Rd
@@ -9,7 +9,10 @@ table(..., schema = NULL)
 \arguments{
 \item{...}{arrays, chunked arrays, or R vectors}
 
-\item{schema}{NULL or a schema}
+\item{schema}{a schema. The default (\code{NULL}) infers the schema from the \code{...}}
+}
+\value{
+an arrow::Table
 }
 \description{
 Create an arrow::Table from a data frame