Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Edgewood Chemical and Biological Center (ECBC) and ITT Industries Advanced Engineering and Sciences Division (AES) have been collaborating on the transitioning and subsequent development of a short-range, non-contact Raman lidar system specifically designed to detect and identify chemical agents on the battlefield. [The instrument, referred to as LISA (Laser Interrogation of Surface Agents), will the subject of an accompanying paper.] As part of this collaboration, BNL has the responsibility for developing a spectral database (library) of surrogates and precursors for use with LISA’s pattern recognition algorithms. In this paper, the authors discuss the phenomenon of UV Raman and resonance-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, the development of an instrument-independent Raman spectral library, and highlight the exploitable characteristics present in the acquired spectral signatures that suggest potential utility in our country’s efforts on Homeland Security.