Third party library locations (was: Java and OO Concepts)

Joe Pluta wrote:

... defeats at least part of the purpose of using third-party
packages in the first place

This made me think of a general question for folks ... Where do you store 3rd party libraries? Do you keep them in a application specific location or a common system location?

IOW ...

/usr/local/lib/log4j-1.2.3.jar

or

<app dir>/lib/log4j-1.2.3.jar

?

Personally, I prefer to keep the libraries in an application specific location so I know that, when I deploy the app, the correct library version is always the one I use.

I know people who prefer to keep the libraries in common system location ... which seems risky to me.

david