Connecting and creating db

Well, this is a novice list, so I hope no one will find me too pitiful to answer.

Although I have used Postgres before, some years ago, I had never installed it (maybe I still
haven't).  I have installed version 9.0 by RPM, on an RHEL 4 box.  I can start the server,
but there are two problems:

1. logged in as user "postgres", I cannot connect to the database server without first issuing
(every time) the command: export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/usr/pgsql/lib"
This is annoying.

2.  once connected to the cluster, I cannot create a database.  There is no error message,
and nothing is logged.  I am using the command "createdb graves". Nothing happens.

\l displays the databases (postgres, template0, template1).

Can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

Sandy Keathley