Linking a shared library

[Edward Diener <eldlistmailingz at tropicsoft dot com>]

An executable I am creating needs to link and run with a shared library 
called, let's say, 'libmyshare.so' in a relative directory called, let's 
say 'mylibs/lib'.

Does using the -L option while compiling the source files to object 
files add the relative directory 'mylibs/lib' to the library search path 
for shared libraries when linking ?

Do I specify the shared library to the linker as '-lmyshare' when 
linking or do I rather specify the shared library simply as 
'libmyshare.so' when linking ?

I have tried using '-Lmylibs/lib' when compiling and '-lmyshare' when 
linking but the linker fails with the message:

/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lmyshare

so I am doing something wrong and do not know what it is.