The UCSD HIRES/Keck I damped Ly alpha abundance database. I. The data

We present new chemical abundance measurements of 16 damped Ly alpha system s at z > 1.5 and update our previous abundance analyses. The entire databas e presented here was derived from HIRES observations on the Keck I telescop e, reduced with the same software package, and analyzed with identical tech niques. Altogether, we present a large, homogeneous database of chemical ab undance measurements for protogalaxies in the early universe, ideal for stu dying a number of important aspects of galaxy formation. In addition, we ha ve established an on-line directory for this database and will continuously update the results.