Error with Python 2.3 as a shared Library

[Francisco Miguel Montenegro Montes]

Hi, perhaps some of you can help me...

I'm installing Python 2.3 (in Linux RedHat 8.0) and I need to build it 
like a shared library, because I want to interact
Python with PostgreSQL. Following the README instructions, I try:

./configure --enable-shared --prefix=/whatever   (I'm not root of my 
system, so I can't use /usr/local/)
make
make install

it seems to be ok, without errors. And when I try :  

  /whatever/bin/python

it says:

whatever/bin/python    error while loading shared libraries: 
libpython2.3.so.1.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or 
directory

but this library (libpython2.3.so.1.0 ) is in the whatever/lib directory.

What's wrong? Is it something related to the path? How can I tell python 
where the library is? Or is it not the problem?

Thanks.