Avoid libtool madness and omit libtool archives (/usr/lib/lib*.la) and static libs (/usr/lib/lib*.a). See bug #154142 as an example of the problems that can be avoided.
for .la, yes for .a no, I don't see the madness Daniel
If you remove the .la files, in general, it makes static libs (sometimes *very*) difficult to use(*), that's all. That's why I usually recommend to packagers that if they insist on keeping .la files, they package them separately along with the static libs. (*) In this case, the .la libxmlsec1.la contains the dependant library information, which is (usually) superluous in the shared library case, but almost always required when linking statically.
Is this a duplicate of bug #154142?
Basically, yeah. Fullfilling this enhancement request will effectively fix bug #154142.
Okay the extra .la should have been removed some time ago, but I forgot. It should be fixed in rawhide, with the upcoming 1.2.9-7, Daniel