This paper provides background on building the "Connecticut Digital Gazetteer." The paper begins by describing primary research initiatives, including a 1998 workshop convened by the National Academy of Science's Mapping Science Committee to build a national vision of a geolibrary and a 1999 workshop at the Smithsonian Institution to study digital gazetteers. The definition and scope of digital gazetteers are also addressed. The paper then describes building the Connecticut Digital Gazetteer, including technical considerations, identifying spatial extents of populated places, the Connecticut History Online (CHO) project, mapping the CHO database, accessing CHO through a spatial interface, and the metadata framework. (Contains 12 references.) (MES)