diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index 7cbef596..a3c57a4a 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -10,10 +10,12 @@
   <property name="copyright.holder" value="Michael Bayne"/>
 
   <!-- things you probably don't want to change -->
-  <property name="src.dir"     value="src/java"/>
-  <property name="deploy.dir"  value="dist"/>
-  <property name="javadoc.dir" value="${deploy.dir}/docs"/>
-  <property name="savedoc.dir" value="docs"/>
+  <property name="src.dir"       value="src/java"/>
+  <property name="deploy.dir"    value="dist"/>
+  <property name="javadoc.dir"   value="${deploy.dir}/docs"/>
+  <property name="savedoc.dir"   value="docs"/>
+  <property name="projects.root" value="."/>
+  <property name="libs.dir"      value="lib"/>
 
   <!-- declare our classpath business -->
   <path id="classpath">
@@ -21,7 +23,8 @@
     <fileset dir="${deploy.dir}/lib" includes="*.jar"/>
   </path>
 
-  <!-- import some targets to check dependency availability -->
+  <!-- import some targets to enumerate and check dependency availability -->
+  <import file="libs-incl.xml"/>
   <import file="depends-incl.xml"/>
 
   <!-- prepares the application directories -->
@@ -35,16 +38,22 @@
       <fileset dir="${src.dir}" includes="**/*.properties"/>
     </copy>
     <copy todir="${deploy.dir}/lib">
-      <fileset dir="lib" includes="**/*.jar"/>
+      <fileset refid="samskivert.libs"/>
     </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="${deploy.dir}"/>
+  </target>
+
   <!-- build the java class files -->
   <target name="compile" depends="prepare,compute-builds">
     <javac srcdir="${src.dir}" destdir="${deploy.dir}/classes"
diff --git a/depends-incl.xml b/depends-incl.xml
index 4783e7fa..7c89e136 100644
--- a/depends-incl.xml
+++ b/depends-incl.xml
@@ -9,8 +9,8 @@
     <echo message="A package followed by 'true' indicates that the package"/>
     <echo message="is present. One followed by '${package.present}' indicates"/>
     <echo message="that it was not found. Jar files can be placed into the"/>
-    <echo message="lib/ directory or placed in the directory referenced"/>
-    <echo message="by your JAVA_LIBS environment variable."/>
+    <echo message="lib/ directory or copied into dist/lib if samskivert is"/>
+    <echo message="being built as a part of a larger project."/>
 
     <echo message=""/>
     <echo message="------------------------------------------"/>
diff --git a/lib/LIBS b/lib/LIBS
deleted file mode 100644
index 52610c62..00000000
--- a/lib/LIBS
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,8 +0,0 @@
-commons-collections.jar
-commons-digester.jar
-commons-io.jar
-commons-logging.jar
-ejb3-persistence.jar
-mail.jar
-servlet-2.3.jar
-velocity-1.5-dev.jar
diff --git a/libs-incl.xml b/libs-incl.xml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..12a3c41f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/libs-incl.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+<?xml version="1.0"?>
+<!-- declares the libraries needed to build samskivert -->
+<project name="library-dependencies">
+  <fileset dir="${projects.root}" id="samskivert.libs">
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/commons-collections.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/commons-digester.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/commons-io.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/commons-logging.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/ejb3-persistence.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/junit-3.7.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/mail.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/servlet-2.3.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/velocity-1.5-dev.jar"/>
+  </fileset>
+</project>