Access 2000 and table linking

What do I need to do to get Access to share linked tables?

When one application opens a linked table using Access2000 another user is locked out from the table. However if a user opens the table using Access 97 more than one user with either Access 2000 or Access 97 can open the table.

I am using Access 2000 to link to some Access 97 tables. This is more or less a front/end back/end arrangement where each user has the modules, forms, etc residing locally on their hard drive but link to the shared data tables.