I have a lisp directory in my home directory where I store files like the one you're talking about. I prefer this because I backup my home directory more carefully than /usr/local/, and it's where I put my own homemade elisp concoctions as well as those that don't come standard with emacs.

Anyway, the point is that you're not limited to the locations that are currently listed in your load-path variable. If you want to add a new location to your load-path, add this line to your .emacs file:

(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/directory")

Then restart emacs (or manually reload your .emacs file) (or M-x eval-last-sexp with point at the end of the expression) and you're new location will be ready to serve.

John Emerson Conrad