How to implement and use DBMS_STATS?

OK, enough is enough. For a month now, I've been researching on how one is supposed to implement and use the DBMS_STATS package. The FMs I R'd, Oracle 8.1.7's "Designing and Tuning for Performance" and "Supplied PL/SQL Packages Reference", give the syntax and some very weak and incomplete examples, but fail to define how a DBA is actually supposed to USE the package in day-to-day operation.

And Oracle Support just keeps pointing me back to inane and unrelated articles in MetaClink.

Can anyone point out a website or a good book with a chapter on using DBMS_STATS for CBO? Specifically, some good examples, some definitions
(when are stats considered "stale"?), what is the scope of
GATHER_DATABASE_STATS (does it stat SYS???), under what circumstances GATHER_TABLE, GATHER_SCHEMA, and GATHER_DATABASE are to be used, and generally how the hell one goes about implementing this. I've now got less than two weeks to figure it out!

And if you know this, where did you learn it? Even my Oracle Perf Tuning Class student guide mentions the package, says to use it, but then points to the syntax-only Oracle docs for more info. <sigh>

Frustratedly yours,

Rich Jesse                          System/Database Administrator (wannabe?)
Rich.Jesse_at_qtiworld.com             Quad/Tech International, Sussex, WI USA

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