Amsterdam’s Royal Institute for the Tropics is being forced to dispose of its library because the government has withdawn all funding for the institution, the Volkskrant reports on Friday.

The 900,000 books, maps and documents, the earliest dating back to 1469, are being offered to other scientific institutions. Those that are not given away will be dumped, the Volkskrant says.

‘This is a disaster,’ Hans van Hartevelt, director of the 230-year-old library, told the paper. Other institutions are interested in the collection but need to find the budget to take care of it, he said.