Hm, interesting post as KSBoy and I were just talking last night about pears! I have a friend who has a brother with a pear tree and gives me all the free pears I can handle!  I canned several different types last year:  pickled pears, pears in a light syrup with fresh ginger, pears in light syrup with ginger AND cinnamon, and just plain.   These are seckel (sugar) pears and I left the skin on (just lazy, but there is more fiber anyway that way).  They all turned out great. 

I grew up canning with my mom, and have been canning by myself for about 5 years now.  It's very rewarding; the best thing I can tell you is to be scrupulous about cleanliness and follow canning directions to the letter.  And leave enough time for canning, as you can't be interrupted in the process (to preserve the freshness of the produce and the integrity of the process).  Base time I have found for canning ANYthing is about 3 1/2 hours.  Of course if you are canning a big quantity you could be at it all day!!  Buy some Fruit Fresh since you are doing pears.

If you do not have a Ball Blue Book yet, that is the canning bible and can be had for about $5-6.  This is Ball's website and chock full of good helpful info:

http://www.freshpreserving.com/