my move would be,
- using a property file
- and hardcoding the path of that property file in one of the file/servlet only so that every other class can know about it
the reason is- if we use web.xml and getInitParam thing then its webserver dependent and when we dont have much control over the production servers its better to have configurations in our control. here anyways we will prepare copy for deployment and that time we have to just worry about ONE file to change the absolute path depending upon production server than spoiling relations with the production webserver admin you know

its much easier this way i believe and keeps our code 'webserver independent'
i've been using this convention and learned that i did the right choice given hassels of communicating and pinging 'busy' production server admins...
regards
maulin