diff --git a/lib/Artwork.php b/lib/Artwork.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..31530e8f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/Artwork.php
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+<?
+
+class Artwork extends PropertiesBase{
+	public $ArtworkId;
+	public $Title;
+	protected $DisplayTitle = null;
+}
diff --git a/lib/Collection.php b/lib/Collection.php
index 259847bf..8d047dbb 100644
--- a/lib/Collection.php
+++ b/lib/Collection.php
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 <?
+
 class Collection{
 	public $Name;
 	public $Url;
diff --git a/lib/Constants.php b/lib/Constants.php
index 93529807..2e941567 100644
--- a/lib/Constants.php
+++ b/lib/Constants.php
@@ -3,6 +3,13 @@
 use function Safe\define;
 use function Safe\strtotime;
 
+const SITE_STATUS_LIVE = 		'live';
+const SITE_STATUS_DEV =			'dev';
+define('SITE_STATUS', getenv('SITE_STATUS') ?: SITE_STATUS_DEV); // Set in the PHP FPM pool configuration. Have to use define() and not const so we can use a function.
+
+const DATABASE_DEFAULT_DATABASE = 	'se';
+const DATABASE_DEFAULT_HOST = 		'localhost';
+
 const EBOOKS_PER_PAGE = 12;
 const SORT_NEWEST = 'newest';
 const SORT_AUTHOR_ALPHA = 'author-alpha';
diff --git a/lib/Core.php b/lib/Core.php
index f83331d1..eb8e2b06 100644
--- a/lib/Core.php
+++ b/lib/Core.php
@@ -24,3 +24,5 @@ set_exception_handler(function(Throwable $ex): void{
 
 	throw $ex; // Send the exception back to PHP for its usual logging routine.
 });
+
+$GLOBALS['DbConnection'] = new DbConnection(DATABASE_DEFAULT_DATABASE, DATABASE_DEFAULT_HOST);
diff --git a/lib/Db.php b/lib/Db.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6be4db21
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/Db.php
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+<?
+
+class Db{
+	public static function GetLastInsertedId(){
+		return $GLOBALS['DbConnection']->GetLastInsertedId();
+	}
+
+	public static function Query(string $query, $args = []){
+		if(!is_array($args)){
+			$args = [$args];
+		}
+
+		return $GLOBALS['DbConnection']->Query($query, $args);
+	}
+}
diff --git a/lib/DbConnection.php b/lib/DbConnection.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ee040bbc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/DbConnection.php
@@ -0,0 +1,183 @@
+<?
+use function Safe\preg_match;
+
+class DbConnection{
+	private $_link = null;
+	public $IsConnected = false;
+	public $QueryCount = 0;
+
+	public function __construct(?string $defaultDatabase = null, string $host = 'localhost', ?string $user = null, string$password = '', bool $forceUtf8 = true, bool $require = true){
+		if($user === null){
+			// Get the user running the script for local socket login
+			$user = posix_getpwuid(posix_geteuid())['name'];
+		}
+
+		$connectionString = 'mysql:';
+
+		try{
+			if(stripos($host, ':') !== false){
+				$port = null;
+				preg_match('/([^:]*):([0-9]+)/ius', $host, $matches);
+				$host = $matches[1];
+				if(sizeof($matches) > 2){
+					$port = $matches[2];
+				}
+
+				$connectionString .= 'host=' . $host;
+
+				if($port !== null){
+					$connectionString .= ';port=' . $port;
+				}
+			}
+			else{
+				$connectionString .= 'host=' . $host;
+			}
+
+			if($defaultDatabase !== null){
+				$connectionString .= ';dbname=' . $defaultDatabase;
+			}
+
+			// Have to use ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES = true, otherwise transactions don't work for some reason.
+			$params = [\PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES => true, \PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => \PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION, \PDO::ATTR_PERSISTENT => false];
+
+			if($forceUtf8){
+				$params[\PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_INIT_COMMAND] = 'set names utf8mb4 collate utf8mb4_unicode_ci;';
+			}
+
+			// We can't use persistent connections (connection pooling) because we would have race condition problems with last_insert_id()
+			$this->_link = new \PDO($connectionString, $user, $password, $params);
+
+			$this->IsConnected = true;
+		}
+		catch(Exception $ex){
+			if(SITE_STATUS == SITE_STATUS_DEV){
+				var_dump($ex);
+			}
+			else{
+				Logger::WriteErrorLogEntry('Error connecting to ' . $connectionString . '. Exception: ' . vds($ex));
+			}
+
+			if($require){
+				print("Something crazy happened in our database.  <a href=\"/contact/\">Drop us a line</a> and let us know exactly what you were doing and we'll take a look.\n<br />The more detail you can provide, the better!");
+				exit();
+			}
+		}
+	}
+
+	// Inputs:	string 	$sql 		= the SQL query to execute
+	//		array 	$params 	= an array of parameters to bind to the SQL statement
+	// Returns:	a resource record or null on error
+	public function Query(string $sql, array $params = []){
+		if(!$this->IsConnected){
+			return;
+		}
+
+		$this->QueryCount++;
+		$result = [];
+		$preparedSql = $sql;
+
+		$handle = $this->_link->prepare($preparedSql);
+		if(!is_array($params)){
+			$params = [$params];
+		}
+
+		$name = 0;
+		foreach($params as $parameter){
+			$name++;
+
+			if(is_a($parameter, 'DateTime')){
+				$parameter = $parameter->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');
+			}
+
+			// MySQL strict mode requires 0 or 1 instead of true or false
+			// Can't use PDO::PARAM_BOOL, it just doesn't work
+			if(is_bool($parameter)){
+				if($parameter){
+					$parameter = 1;
+				}
+				else{
+					$parameter = 0;
+				}
+			}
+
+			if(is_int($parameter)){
+				$handle->bindValue($name, $parameter, PDO::PARAM_INT);
+			}
+			else{
+				$handle->bindValue($name, $parameter);
+			}
+		}
+
+		$deadlockRetries = 0;
+		$done = false;
+		while(!$done){
+			try{
+				$result = $this->ExecuteQuery($handle, $preparedSql, $params);
+				$done = true;
+			}
+			catch(\PDOException $ex){
+				if($ex->errorInfo[1] == 1213 && $deadlockRetries < 3){ // InnoDB deadlock, this is normal and happens occasionally.  All we have to do is retry the query.
+					$deadlockRetries++;
+
+					usleep(500000 * $deadlockRetries); // Give the deadlock some time to clear up.   Start at .5 seconds
+				}
+				elseif(stripos($ex->getMessage(), '1064 offset out of bounds') !== false){
+					$done = true;
+					// We reach here if Sphinx tries to get a record past its page limit. Just silently do nothing.
+				}
+				else{
+					$done = true;
+					if(SITE_STATUS == SITE_STATUS_DEV){
+						print($sql);
+						throw($ex);
+					}
+					else{
+						Logger::WriteErrorLogEntry($ex->getMessage());
+						Logger::WriteErrorLogEntry($preparedSql);
+						Logger::WriteErrorLogEntry(vds($params));
+					}
+				}
+			}
+		}
+
+		// If only one rowset is returned, change the result object
+		if(sizeof($result) == 1){
+			$result = $result[0];
+		}
+
+		return $result;
+	}
+
+	private function ExecuteQuery($handle, string $preparedSql, array $params){
+		$handle->execute();
+
+		$result = [];
+		do{
+			try{
+				if($handle->columnCount() > 0){
+					$result[] = $handle->fetchAll(\PDO::FETCH_OBJ);
+				}
+			}
+			catch(\PDOException $ex){
+				// HY000 is thrown when there is no result set, e.g. for an update operation.
+				// If anything besides that is thrown, then send it up the stack
+				if($ex->errorInfo[0] != "HY000"){
+					throw $ex;
+				}
+			}
+		}while($handle->nextRowset());
+
+		return $result;
+	}
+
+	// Gets the last AUTO-INCREMENT id
+	public function GetLastInsertedId(){
+		$id = $this->_link->lastInsertId();
+
+		if($id == 0){
+			return null;
+		}
+
+		return $id;
+	}
+}
diff --git a/lib/OrmBase.php b/lib/OrmBase.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b7043264
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/OrmBase.php
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+<?
+use function Safe\substr;
+
+abstract class OrmBase{
+	public static function FillObject($object, $row){
+		foreach($row as $property => $value){
+			if(substr($property, strlen($property) - 9) == 'Timestamp'){
+				if($value !== null){
+					$object->$property = new DateTime($value, new DateTimeZone('UTC'));
+				}
+				else{
+					$object->$property = null;
+				}
+			}
+			elseif(substr($property, strlen($property) - 5) == 'Cache'){
+				$property = substr($property, 0, strlen($property) - 5);
+				$object->$property = $value;
+			}
+			else{
+				$object->$property = $value;
+			}
+		}
+
+		return $object;
+	}
+
+	public static function FromRow($row){
+		return self::FillObject(new static(), $row);
+	}
+}
diff --git a/lib/PropertiesBase.php b/lib/PropertiesBase.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5ad0b39d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/PropertiesBase.php
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+<?
+
+abstract class PropertiesBase extends OrmBase{
+	public function __get($var){
+		$function = 'Get' . $var;
+
+		if(method_exists($this, $function)){
+			return $this->$function();
+		}
+		elseif(substr($var, 0, 7) == 'Display'){
+			// If we're asked for a DisplayXXX property and the getter doesn't exist, format as escaped HTML.
+			if($this->$var === null){
+				$target = substr($var, 7, strlen($var));
+				$this->$var = Formatter::ToPlainText($this->$target);
+			}
+
+			return $this->$var;
+		}
+		else{
+			return $this->$var;
+		}
+	}
+
+	public function __set($var, $val){
+		$function = 'Set' . $var;
+		if(method_exists($this, $function)){
+			$this->$function($val);
+		}
+		else{
+			$this->$var = $val;
+		}
+	}
+}