Java Class Loaders

Be sure to check out this decent article on JCL on the commons-logging page:
JCL Information

Another article on Classloaders is on Java World: Find a way out of the ClassLoader maze

* JNDI uses context classloaders
* Class.getResource() and Class.forName() use the current classloader
* JAXP uses context classloaders (as of J2SE 1.4)
* java.util.ResourceBundle uses the caller's current classloader
* URL protocol handlers specified via java.protocol.handler.pkgs system property are looked up in the bootstrap and system classloaders only
* Java Serialization API uses the caller's current classloader by default

The JNDI Tutorial talks about Classloaders.