public folder access

[kRex]

all --
I am not a vb programmer by trade, so go easy on me ... the goal is to
copy emails from a public folder and dump them into a text file ... for
import into a mysql db. I've tried using the MAPIFolder namespace, but I
can't access the public folder store. Can someone point me to a resource
to get me started with this project???
tia,
kRex