diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index 64c76bfdb..720a6c313 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -15,6 +15,11 @@
   <property name="javadoc.home"   value="${deploy.dir}/docs"/>
   <property name="classes.dir"    value="${deploy.dir}/classes"/>
 
+  <!-- import some targets to enumerate library dependencies -->
+  <property name="projects.root" value="."/>
+  <property name="libs.dir" value="lib"/>
+  <import file="libs-incl.xml"/>
+
   <!-- declare our classpath business -->
   <path id="classpath">
     <pathelement location="${classes.dir}"/>
@@ -111,12 +116,18 @@
     </copy>
   </target>
 
-  <!-- cleans out the installed application -->
+  <!-- cleans out the intermediate build files -->
   <target name="clean">
-    <delete dir="${deploy.dir}"/>
+    <delete dir="${deploy.dir}/classes"/>
+    <delete dir="${deploy.dir}/docs"/>
     <ant dir="tests" target="clean"/>
   </target>
 
+  <!-- wipes the entire build directory clean -->
+  <target name="distclean" depends="clean">
+    <delete dir="${deploy.dir}"/>
+  </target>
+
   <!-- build the java class files -->
   <target name="compile" depends="prepare">
     <javac srcdir="src/java" destdir="${classes.dir}"
diff --git a/lib/LIBS b/lib/LIBS
deleted file mode 100644
index 608a447e5..000000000
--- a/lib/LIBS
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,6 +0,0 @@
-commons-io.jar
-commons-lang.jar
-junit-3.7.jar
-retroweaver-all-1.2.2.jar
-samskivert.jar
-velocity-1.5-dev.jar
diff --git a/libs-incl.xml b/libs-incl.xml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..527352e6f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/libs-incl.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+<?xml version="1.0"?>
+<!-- declares the libraries needed to build narya -->
+<project name="library-dependencies">
+  <fileset dir="${projects.root}" id="narya.libs">
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/commons-io.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/commons-lang.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/junit-3.7.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/retroweaver-all-1.2.2.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/velocity-1.5-dev.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/samskivert.jar"/>
+    <include name="${samskivert.dir}/dist/samskivert.jar"/>
+  </fileset>
+</project>