Investingating Lucene For Project

[Scott Purcell]

I am looking for a solution to a problem I am having. We have a web-based asset 
management solution where we manage customers assets.
 
We have had requests from some clients who would like the ability to "index"  
PDF files, now and possibly other text files in the future. The PDF files live 
on a server and are in a structured environment. I would like to somehow index 
the content inside the PDF and be able to run searches on that information from 
a web-form. The result MUST BE  a text snippet (that being some text prior to 
the searched word and after the searched word). 
Does this make sense? And can Lucene do this?
 
If the product can do this, how is the best way to get rolling on a project of 
this nature? Purchase an example book, or are there simple examples one can 
pick up on? Does Lucene have a large learning curve? or reasonably quick?
 
If all the above will work, what kind of license does this require? I have not 
been able to find a link to that yet on the jakarta site.
 
I sincerely appreciate any input into this.
 
Sincerely
Scott