before the 1999 war, the reserve collection consisting of multiple deposit copies of publications at the national library of kosovo in prishtinë kept for use within kosovo for other libraries, was pulped at the lipjan paper mill through an order by the serbian library director. during the 1999 war, 65 (a third of a total of 183) kosovo public libraries were fully destroyed resulting in the combined loss of 900,588 volumes. kosovo school libraries were destroyed during the war. in 1999, certain archives and collections were also removed from kosovo into serbia, such as the archive of the "institute for the protection of monuments of kosovo" from the organisation's building in prishtinë by employees belonging to the yugoslav ministry of interior. the yugoslav serbian ministry of justice claimed that the removal of public records from kosovo to serbia in 1999 was "to prevent the albanian secessionists from destroying or forging [them]". some kosovo municipal registries were also burned where they were held.