diff --git a/lib/types.js b/lib/types.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..77e980e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/types.js
@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+//maps types from javascript to postgres and vise-versa
+
+var typeParsers = {};
+//registers a method used to parse a string representing a particular
+//oid type into a javascript type
+var registerStringTypeParser = function(oid, converter) {
+  typeParsers[oid] = converter;
+};
+
+//the empty parse function
+var noParse = function(val) {
+  return val;
+}
+
+//returns a function used to convert a specific type (specified by
+//oid) into a result javascript type
+var getStringTypeParser = function(oid) {
+  return typeParsers[oid] || noParse;
+};
+
+//parses PostgreSQL server formatted date strings into javascript date objects
+var parseDate = function(isoDate) {
+  //TODO this could do w/ a refactor
+  var dateMatcher = /(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2}) (\d{2}):(\d{2}):(\d{2})(\.\d{1,})?/;
+
+  var match = dateMatcher.exec(isoDate);
+  var year = match[1];
+  var month = parseInt(match[2],10)-1;
+  var day = match[3];
+  var hour = parseInt(match[4],10);
+  var min = parseInt(match[5],10);
+  var seconds = parseInt(match[6], 10);
+
+  var miliString = match[7];
+  var mili = 0;
+  if(miliString) {
+    mili = 1000 * parseFloat(miliString);
+  }
+
+  var tZone = /([Z|+\-])(\d{2})?(\d{2})?/.exec(isoDate.split(' ')[1]);
+  //minutes to adjust for timezone
+  var tzAdjust = 0;
+
+  if(tZone) {
+    var type = tZone[1];
+    switch(type) {
+    case 'Z': break;
+    case '-':
+      tzAdjust = -(((parseInt(tZone[2],10)*60)+(parseInt(tZone[3]||0,10))));
+      break;
+    case '+':
+      tzAdjust = (((parseInt(tZone[2],10)*60)+(parseInt(tZone[3]||0,10))));
+      break;
+    default:
+      throw new Error("Unidentifed tZone part " + type);
+    }
+  }
+
+  var utcOffset = Date.UTC(year, month, day, hour, min, seconds, mili);
+
+  var date = new Date(utcOffset - (tzAdjust * 60* 1000));
+  return date;
+};
+
+var parseBool = function(val) {
+  return val === 't';
+}
+
+var parseIntegerArray = function(val) {
+  return JSON.parse(val.replace("{","[").replace("}","]"));
+};
+
+var parseStringArray = function(val) {
+  if (!val) return null;
+  if (val[0] !== '{' || val[val.length-1] !== '}')
+    throw "Not postgresql array! (" + arrStr + ")";
+
+  var x = val.substring(1, val.length - 1);
+  x = x.match(/(NULL|[^,]+|"((?:.|\n|\r)*?)(?!\\)"|\{((?:.|\n|\r)*?(?!\\)\}) (,|$))/mg);
+  if (x === null) throw "Not postgre array";
+  return x.map(function (el) {
+    if (el === 'NULL') return null;
+    if (el[0] === '{') return arguments.callee(el);
+    if (el[0] === '\"')  return el.substring(1, el.length - 1).replace('\\\"', '\"');
+    return el;
+  });
+};
+
+//default string type parser registrations
+registerStringTypeParser(20, parseInt);
+registerStringTypeParser(21, parseInt);
+registerStringTypeParser(23, parseInt);
+registerStringTypeParser(26, parseInt);
+registerStringTypeParser(1700, parseFloat);
+registerStringTypeParser(700, parseFloat);
+registerStringTypeParser(701, parseFloat);
+registerStringTypeParser(16, parseBool);
+registerStringTypeParser(1114, parseDate);
+registerStringTypeParser(1184, parseDate);
+registerStringTypeParser(1007, parseIntegerArray);
+registerStringTypeParser(1009, parseStringArray);
+
+module.exports = {
+  registerTypeParser: registerTypeParser,
+  getTypeParser: getTypeParser
+}