diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index 98d0cfef..3fec3adc 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -14,6 +14,11 @@
   <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="${classes.dir}"/>
@@ -135,17 +140,23 @@
     <copy todir="${classes.dir}/rsrc">
       <fileset dir="rsrc" includes="**/*" excludes="**/bundles/**"/>
     </copy>
-    <copy todir="${deploy.dir}/lib">
-      <fileset dir="lib" includes="**/*.jar"/>
+    <copy todir="${deploy.dir}/lib" flatten="true">
+      <fileset refid="${app.name}.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="${deploy.dir}"/>
+  </target>
+
   <!-- build the java class files -->
   <target name="compile" depends="check-available,prepare">
     <javac srcdir="src/java" destdir="${classes.dir}"
diff --git a/lib/LIBS b/lib/LIBS
deleted file mode 100644
index 81c59de2..00000000
--- a/lib/LIBS
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,14 +0,0 @@
-commons-digester.jar
-commons-lang.jar
-commons-logging.jar
-junit-3.7.jar
-narya-base.jar
-narya-distrib.jar
-narya-tests.jar
-nenya-cast.jar
-nenya-media.jar
-nenya-miso.jar
-nenya-rsrc.jar
-retroweaver-all-1.2.2.jar
-samskivert.jar
-xml-writer.jar
diff --git a/lib/README b/lib/README
deleted file mode 100644
index c84ceaba..00000000
--- a/lib/README
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,22 +0,0 @@
-Required external libraries
----------------------------
-
-The Narya code requires the following external Java libraries (JAR files)
-to be placed (or symlinked) here in the lib/ directory or in the shared
-library directory specified in the build.xml file (java.libraries).
-
-* The samskivert library:
-  http://samskivert.com/code/samskivert/
-
-* Apache Commons libraries: collections, digester, io, and lang
-  http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/
-
-* Megginson Technologies' XMLWriter 0.2 library:
-  http://www.megginson.com/Software/xml-writer-0.2.zip
-
-Once the jar files are in place (regardless of what they are named), the
-build system will automatically include them in the compile-time
-classpath.
-
---
-$Id: README 3105 2004-08-27 18:38:55Z mdb $
diff --git a/libs-incl.xml b/libs-incl.xml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..792f83e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/libs-incl.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+<?xml version="1.0"?>
+<!-- declares the libraries needed to build vilya -->
+<project name="library-dependencies">
+  <fileset dir="${projects.root}" id="vilya.libs">
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/commons-digester.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/commons-lang.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/commons-logging.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/junit-3.7.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/retroweaver-all-1.2.2.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/xml-writer.jar"/>
+    <!-- these might come from lib/ -->
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/samskivert.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/narya-base.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/narya-distrib.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/narya-tests.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/nenya-cast.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/nenya-media.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/nenya-miso.jar"/>
+    <include name="${libs.dir}/nenya-rsrc.jar"/>
+    <!-- or from the build directories of the actual projects -->
+    <include name="${samskivert.dir}/dist/samskivert.jar"/>
+    <include name="${narya.dir}/dist/narya-base.jar"/>
+    <include name="${narya.dir}/dist/narya-distrib.jar"/>
+    <include name="${narya.dir}/dist/narya-tests.jar"/>
+    <include name="${nenya.dir}/dist/nenya-cast.jar"/>
+    <include name="${nenya.dir}/dist/nenya-media.jar"/>
+    <include name="${nenya.dir}/dist/nenya-miso.jar"/>
+    <include name="${nenya.dir}/dist/nenya-rsrc.jar"/>
+  </fileset>
+</project>