I looked at CGI::Application and am looking again, as there is an updated version just out, but I am trying to solve the (many) information problems first, before I set about improving the CGI ...

I also looked at SQLite, but it's not clear whether it handles Unicode properly or not. The docs don't mention it; the only reference is in the changes file, where it says "fixed Unicode tests".

Another problem I have is that some of the data is in XML format and I'm sure you know that mapping XML onto the RDBMS model can be a sure-fire headache generator.