arbitrary build can't find libs - right way to do this?

[Steve Franks]

I'm trying to compile a non-port application for the first time ever.
The associated library built and installed just fine - I can see them
right in /usr/local/lib and usr/local/include/libnamefoo.h  However,
when I run ./configure for the application, it clearly can't find the
libs.  So my question is, should I be changing my path, is there a
standard variable I need to export, or what?  Obviously for ports this
just works, so I've never had to do it.  I'm sure there's a standard
way, so I thought I'd get in the habit of doing that right from the
start...

Thoughts?

Steve