This module converts strings from and to 2-byte Unicode UCS2 format. All mappings happen via 2 byte UTF16 encodings, not via 1 byte UTF8 encoding. To convert between UTF8 and UTF16 use Unicode::String. . For historical reasons this module coexists with Unicode::Map8. Please use Unicode::Map8 unless you need to care for >1 byte character sets, e.g. chinese GB2312. Anyway, if you stick to the basic functionality (see documentation) you can use both modules equivalently. . The 'libwww-perl' package is needed to run the example mirrorMappings.