Handles associate respective native resources with an application that utilizes a library to call for the native resource. Each handle is created to track a native resource that has been allocated to an application. All native resources associated with the application are freed by examining the handles to find those native resources still being held by the application after they are no longer being used, or when that application has been, or is being, terminated. If a native resource is requested by the application and found to be unavailable, the handles are reviewed to collect allocated native resources that are found to be unneeded by their respective applications. A collected native resource corresponding to the requested native resource is thereby made available to be reallocated to the requesting application.