How to Program SmartCards??

I've got the smartcard reader, DLL files from Gemplus and included is some functions for interfacing with the smartcard reader. It does not comes with a untility program which allows me to program the smartcards so i think i've to make use of the VB functions in the DLL and developed my own program. But i'm not sure how to begin. Does anyone knows any related websites or sites which have sample smartcard programs? I need to encode infomation onto the cards and be able to read them using VB. Or just guide me as to how to program the smartcards. Thanks alot!!!