making apps take libs from a prescribed place ?

[Alexei Nefediev <nefediev heron itep ru>]

Hello,

has anybody an idea on how to make some application load library from a
manually prescribed place, rather than from the standard one. For example,
I install new libraries to /lib or /usr/lib etc. It is quite probable that
some applications won't start now as linked against the older versions. I
am lucky if these applications can be recompiled with the new libraries,
but what can I do if I have only binary, not source? Sure I can keep the
old libraries in a different place, but now I need to make this
application take the library just from the place where my old one is
placed. Any ideas? I posted a similar question some time ago, but there
were no responces. Maybe smth has changed? :)

Thanks in advance,
Alexei