diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index f456677..e367311 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -58,6 +58,12 @@
       <version>2.5</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>postgresql</groupId>
+      <artifactId>postgresql</artifactId>
+      <version>8.3-606.jdbc4</version>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
   <build>
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/threerings/util/ConnectionProviderUtil.java b/src/main/java/com/threerings/util/ConnectionProviderUtil.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9fb3d10
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/com/threerings/util/ConnectionProviderUtil.java
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+//
+// ooo-util - a place for OOO utilities
+// Copyright (C) 2011 Three Rings Design, Inc., All Rights Reserved
+// http://github.com/threerings/ooo-util/blob/master/LICENSE
+
+package com.threerings.util;
+
+import java.util.Properties;
+
+import com.samskivert.util.Config;
+
+import com.samskivert.jdbc.ConnectionProvider;
+import com.samskivert.jdbc.StaticConnectionProvider;
+
+public class ConnectionProviderUtil
+{
+    public enum DB {
+        postgres, hsqldb;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Creates a ConnectionProvider for the type of databases specified by <code>db.type</code> in
+     * <code>config</code>.
+     * <h2>Types</h2>
+     * <dl>
+     * <dt>postgres</dt>
+     * <dd>Uses {@link PostgresUtil#createPoolingProvider(Config, String)} with the given config
+     * and ident.</dd>
+     * <dt>hsqldb</dt>
+     * <dd>a {@link StaticConnectionProvider} is created from
+     * the sub-properties under <code>db</code>.  It defaults to an in-memory database if
+     * <code>db.default.url</code> isn't defined.
+     * </dd>
+     * </dl>
+     *
+     * @throws IllegalArgumentException - if <code>db.type</code> doesn't match a known type.
+     */
+    public static ConnectionProvider createProvider (Config config, String ident)
+    {
+        return createProvider(config, ident, "db");
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Creates a ConnectionProvider as in {@link #createProvider(Config,String)}, but uses
+     * the supplied {@code prefix} in place of {@code db}.
+     */
+    public static ConnectionProvider createProvider (Config config, String ident, String prefix)
+    {
+        DB type = DB.valueOf(config.getValue(prefix + ".type", "postgres"));
+        switch(type) {
+        case postgres:
+            return PostgresUtil.createPoolingProvider(config, ident, prefix);
+        case hsqldb:
+            Properties sub = config.getSubProperties(prefix);
+            putIfNotPresent(sub, "default.driver", "org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver");
+            putIfNotPresent(sub, "default.url", "jdbc:hsqldb:mem:.");
+            putIfNotPresent(sub, "default.username", "sa");
+            putIfNotPresent(sub, "default.password", "");
+            return new StaticConnectionProvider(sub);
+        default:
+        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown db type " +
+            config.getValue(prefix + ".type", (String)null));
+        }
+    }
+
+    protected static void putIfNotPresent (Properties props, String key, String value)
+    {
+        if (!props.containsKey(key)) {
+            props.put(key, value);
+        }
+    }
+
+}
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/threerings/util/PostgresUtil.java b/src/main/java/com/threerings/util/PostgresUtil.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e9cf46b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/com/threerings/util/PostgresUtil.java
@@ -0,0 +1,105 @@
+//
+// ooo-util - a place for OOO utilities
+// Copyright (C) 2011 Three Rings Design, Inc., All Rights Reserved
+// http://github.com/threerings/ooo-util/blob/master/LICENSE
+
+package com.threerings.util;
+
+import java.util.Properties;
+import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean;
+
+import javax.sql.DataSource;
+
+import org.postgresql.jdbc2.optional.PoolingDataSource;
+
+import com.samskivert.jdbc.ConnectionProvider;
+import com.samskivert.jdbc.DataSourceConnectionProvider;
+import com.samskivert.util.Config;
+import com.samskivert.util.MissingPropertyException;
+
+import static com.samskivert.util.PropertiesUtil.requireProperty;
+
+/**
+ * Postgres related utility methods.
+ */
+public class PostgresUtil
+{
+    /**
+     * Creates a ConnectionProvider that communicates with a Postgres database server using
+     * read-only and read-write connections via a connection pooled data source. The supplied
+     * config must provide the following configuration:
+     * <pre>
+     * db.default.server = DBHOST
+     * db.default.port = 5432
+     * db.default.database = DATABASE
+     * db.default.username = USERNAME
+     * db.default.password = PASSWORD
+     * db.readonly.maxconns = 1
+     * db.readwrite.maxconns = 1
+     * </pre>
+     * It can optionally provide overrides for the server, port, database, username and password
+     * fields for the readonly and readwrite conncetions:
+     * <pre>
+     * db.readonly.server = READSLAVE
+     * db.readonly.username = READUSER
+     * db.readonly.password = READPASS
+     * db.readwrite.server = MASTER
+     * ...
+     * </pre>
+     *
+     * @param config used to obtain the configuration data.
+     * @param projectId a unique identifier for the system creating this provider which will be
+     * used to prefix the identifiers of the data source names (which are JVM global).
+     */
+    public static ConnectionProvider createPoolingProvider (Config config, String projectId)
+    {
+        return createPoolingProvider(config, projectId, "db");
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Creates a ConnectionProvider as in {@link #createPoolingProvider(Config,String)}, but uses
+     * the supplied {@code prefix} in place of {@code db}.
+     */
+    public static ConnectionProvider createPoolingProvider (
+        Config config, String projectId, String prefix)
+    {
+        final DataSource[] sources = new DataSource[2];
+        String[] modes = new String[] { "readonly", "readwrite" };
+        String defPrefix = prefix + ".default";
+        for (int ii = 0; ii < sources.length; ii++) {
+            String modePrefix = prefix + "." + modes[ii];
+            try {
+                // start with defaults, then apply overrides
+                Properties props = config.getSubProperties(defPrefix);
+                config.getSubProperties(modePrefix, props);
+                PoolingDataSource source = new PoolingDataSource();
+                source.setDataSourceName(projectId + "." + modes[ii]);
+                source.setServerName(requireProperty(props, "server"));
+                source.setDatabaseName(requireProperty(props, "database"));
+                source.setPortNumber(Integer.parseInt(requireProperty(props, "port")));
+                source.setUser(requireProperty(props, "username"));
+                source.setPassword(requireProperty(props, "password"));
+                source.setMaxConnections(Integer.parseInt(props.getProperty("maxconns", "1")));
+                sources[ii] = source;
+            } catch (MissingPropertyException mpe) {
+                String key = mpe.getKey();
+                throw new MissingPropertyException(
+                    key, "Unable to locate required property '" + key + "' as '" +
+                    defPrefix + "." + key + "' or '" + modePrefix + "." + key + "'.");
+            }
+        }
+        return new DataSourceConnectionProvider("jdbc:postgresql", sources[0], sources[1]) {
+            @Override public void shutdown () {
+                if (_shutdown.getAndSet(true)) {
+                    // Only shutdown the sources once; Postgres' pooling data source doesn't like
+                    // multiple shutdown calls
+                    return;
+                }
+                for (DataSource source : sources) {
+                    ((PoolingDataSource)source).close();
+                }
+            }
+            protected AtomicBoolean _shutdown = new AtomicBoolean();
+        };
+    }
+}