Extended Neutral Gas Around z ~ 0.5 Galaxies: Properties of Damped Lya Absorbing Galaxies

I review current results from searching for galaxies giving rise to damped Lya absorbers (DLAs) at z<1. Using 14 confirmed DLA galaxies, I further show that intermediate-redshift galaxies possess large HI envelope out to 24-30 h^{-1} kpc radius. The photometric and spectral properties of these galaxies confirm that DLA galaxies are drawn from the typical field population, and not from a separate population of low surface brightness or dwarf galaxies. Comparisons of the ISM abundances of the DLA galaxies and the metallicities of the absorbers at large galactic radii suggest that some DLAs originate in the relatively unevolved outskirts of galactic disks.