newbie question: library versions

["Aisen, Alex M." <aaisen iupui edu>]

Having given up on compilation, I am trying to run gnome from the rpm
binaries on my RH 5.2 (upgraded to kernel 2.2.1) system.  I have a question
about shared library versions.

I find that some of the packages use newer versions of libraries, where as
other, slightly older packages, may use slightly older versions of the same
libraries. For example, some modules seem to use libgnomeui.so.32 and
libgnomeui.so.32.5.0; other modules want libgnomeui.so.31.4.0 and
libgnomeui.so.31.

What should I do?  Keep both versions around, or just keep one version
around, and maybe put in links so the new version is found by a module
looking for an older version.

Thanks again; I appreciate those who are helping me climb the learning
curve.