[CentOS] c++ Development question

Hello Centos user. Im learning about c/c++ , so far every thing works great. The problem begins when I try to install a new library or a third party api. For example now I need to install the jsoncpp implementation in my centos box but I have no idea how to do it. I realized that my knolowge about those things is very poor. I would like to ask you for some documentation about libraries directories layout regarding c/c++ programing. Im not interested in the languaje it self but how to prepare my server to succesfully compile c/c++ programas.

I hope someone can help my on this. Regards, Leo.