diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 4fffb2f..2c96eb1 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
-/target
-/Cargo.lock
+target/
+Cargo.lock
diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0dc08b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+[submodule "lmdb-sys/mdb"]
+	path = lmdb-sys/mdb
+	url = https://gitorious.org/mdb/mdb.git
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index fdfc0cf..ccfa844 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -1,15 +1,19 @@
 [package]
 
 name = "lmdb"
-version = "0.1.0"
+version = "0.2.0"
 authors = ["Dan Burkert <dan@danburkert.com>"]
 license = "Apache-2.0"
 
 description = "Safe Rust bindings for LMDB"
 repository = "https://github.com/danburkert/lmdb-rs.git"
 readme = "README.md"
-keywords = ["LMDB", "database", "storage-engine", "key-value-store", "bindings"]
+keywords = ["LMDB", "database", "storage-engine", "key-value-store", "bindings", "library"]
 
 [lib]
 
 name = "lmdb"
+
+[dependencies.lmdb-sys]
+path = "lmdb-sys"
+
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index c563546..78efa90 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ general, the API is very similar to the LMDB [C-API](http://symas.com/mdb/doc/).
 
 ## TODO
 
+* [x] lmdb-sys.
 * [ ] Cursors.
 * [ ] Zero-copy put API.
 * [ ] Nested transactions.
diff --git a/lmdb-sys/Cargo.toml b/lmdb-sys/Cargo.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..52b6cb6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lmdb-sys/Cargo.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+[package]
+
+name = "lmdb-sys"
+version = "0.2.0"
+authors = ["Dan Burkert <dan@danburkert.com>"]
+license = "Apache-2.0"
+
+links = "lmdb"
+build = "build.rs"
+
+[lib]
+
+name = "lmdb-sys"
+
+[build-dependencies.pkg-config]
+pkg-config = "*"
diff --git a/lmdb-sys/build.rs b/lmdb-sys/build.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4742810
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lmdb-sys/build.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+extern crate "pkg-config" as pkg_config;
+
+use std::io::process::Command;
+use std::os;
+
+/// Run a command and ensure a successful result.
+fn run_cmd(cmd: &Command) {
+    assert!(cmd.status().unwrap().success(),
+            format!("Failed to execute command \"{}\"", cmd))
+}
+
+fn main() {
+    if pkg_config::find_library("liblmdb").is_ok() { return }
+
+    let base_dir = Path::new(os::getenv("CARGO_MANIFEST_DIR").unwrap());
+    let lmdb_dir = base_dir.join_many(&["mdb", "libraries", "liblmdb"]);
+    let dest_dir = Path::new(os::getenv("OUT_DIR").unwrap());
+
+    let mut cflags = os::getenv("CFLAGS").unwrap_or(String::new());
+    let target = os::getenv("TARGET").unwrap();
+
+    if target.contains("i686") {
+        cflags.push_str(" -m32");
+    } else if target.contains("x86_64") {
+        cflags.push_str(" -m64");
+    }
+    if !target.contains("i686") {
+        cflags.push_str(" -fPIC");
+    }
+
+    let mut make = Command::new("make");
+    make.arg("-C").arg(lmdb_dir.clone());
+
+    let mut make_build = make.clone();
+    make_build.arg("liblmdb.a")
+              .arg(format!("XCFLAGS={}", cflags));
+
+    let mut make_clean = make.clone();
+    make_clean.arg("clean");
+
+    run_cmd(&make_clean);
+    run_cmd(&make_build);
+    run_cmd(Command::new("cp")
+                    .arg(lmdb_dir.join("liblmdb.a"))
+                    .arg(dest_dir.clone()));
+    run_cmd(&make_clean);
+
+    println!("cargo:rustc-flags=-L {} -l lmdb:static", dest_dir.display());
+}
diff --git a/lmdb-sys/mdb b/lmdb-sys/mdb
new file mode 160000
index 0000000..9a8eb95
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lmdb-sys/mdb
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit 9a8eb95674c7b500cfe5f44d03493ff76c9fc0c1
diff --git a/src/ffi.rs b/lmdb-sys/src/lib.rs
similarity index 97%
rename from src/ffi.rs
rename to lmdb-sys/src/lib.rs
index f01f635..c80403a 100644
--- a/src/ffi.rs
+++ b/lmdb-sys/src/lib.rs
@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
-#![allow(non_camel_case_types, dead_code)]
+//! Provides extern declarations for `liblmdb`. Additionally, this crate provides `liblmdb` as a
+//! native Cargo dependency.
+
+#![allow(non_camel_case_types)]
 extern crate libc;
 
 use libc::{c_int, c_uint, c_void, c_char, size_t};
@@ -123,7 +126,6 @@ pub const MDB_NOLOCK: c_uint =  0x400000;
 pub const MDB_NORDAHEAD: c_uint = 0x800000;
 pub const MDB_NOMEMINIT: c_uint =  0x1000000;
 
-#[link(name = "lmdb")]
 extern {
     pub fn mdb_version(major: *mut c_int, minor: *mut c_int, patch: *mut c_int) -> *mut c_char;
     pub fn mdb_strerror(err: c_int) -> *mut c_char;
diff --git a/src/lib.rs b/src/lib.rs
index 1834f1e..bc59db2 100644
--- a/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/lib.rs
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 #[phase(plugin, link)] extern crate log;
 extern crate libc;
 extern crate sync;
+extern crate "lmdb-sys" as ffi;
 
 pub use environment::{Environment, EnvironmentBuilder};
 pub use error::{LmdbResult, LmdbError};
@@ -37,5 +38,4 @@ macro_rules! lmdb_try_with_cleanup {
 mod environment;
 mod error;
 mod transaction;
-pub mod ffi;
 pub mod flags;