Need a little background on working with libraries

Hi guys, hoping someone can enlighten me here. I'm tasked to get a web site developed, and I'm forced to use BroadVision, which is C++ based and I've got to handle XML and do XSL transformations. I've been told that we have a Xalan XSL library available to us, which has a ".sl" extension. From what I understand, .sl files are equivalent to .dll files in windows and are libraries that are linked in at runtime. However, I don't know much more than that. Can somebody

1. Point me in the direction of how I'd link in a .sl file?
2. How to use (high level, low if possible) a .sl file?

Basically, any info in this area would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.