Introduction libastrodb is a general purpose astronomical database designed to give very fast access to CDS catalog data. libastrodb is designed to be independent of any underlying catalog data formatting and will import most data records providing the catalog ships with a "ReadMe" file that follows the CDS formatting specifications. libastrodb provides a simple database backend and exposes a C API for catalog access. The intended audience of libastrodb is C / C++ programmers, astronomers and anyone working with large astronomical catalogs.