diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 6f05bff..41a7217 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,24 +1,70 @@
-# libdvidcpp [![Picture](https://raw.github.com/janelia-flyem/janelia-flyem.github.com/master/images/gray_janelia_logo.png)](http://janelia.org/)
+# libdvid-cpp [![Picture](https://raw.github.com/janelia-flyem/janelia-flyem.github.com/master/images/gray_janelia_logo.png)](http://janelia.org/)
 
-*Status: In development, not ready for use.*
-
-libdvidcpp provides a c++ wrapper to HTTP calls to [DVID](https://github.com/janelia-flyem/dvid).
+libdvid-cpp provides a c++ wrapper to HTTP calls to [DVID](https://github.com/janelia-flyem/dvid).
 It exposes only part of the DVID REST API allowing the setting and
 retrieving of nd-data and key-value pairs.
 
 ## Installation
 
-(TBD) The primary dependencies are Boost (1.54>=) and cpp-netlib.  These dependencies are
+The primary dependencies are Boost (>=1.54) and cpp-netlib.  These dependencies are
 resolved automatically if building with [buildem](https://github.com/janelia-flyem/buildem).
 
-To build libdvidcpp using buildem
+There are two preferred ways to build libdvid-cpp both use buildem: 1) build the library directly using buildem (see following) or 2) build the library as a buildem dependency when building your application (see next section).
+
+### buildem installation
     
     % mkdir build; cd build;
     % cmake .. -DBUILDEM_DIR=/user-defined/path/to/build/directory
     % make -j num_processors
 
+This will install the libray to ${BUILDEM_DIR}/lib and cmake modules to ${BUILDEM_DIR}/lib/libdvid.
+
+### stand-alone installation
+
+    % mkdir build; cd build;
+    % cmake ..
+    % make; make install
+
+cpp-netlib must be installed and in the cmake search path.
+
+## Building an application
+
+There are two recommended ways for linking lidvid-cpp.  Both are demonstrated in *example/CmakeLists.txt*.  Once libdvid-cpp is found or loaded the following should be added to your CMakeLists.txt:
+
+    % include_directories(${LIBDVIDCPP_INCLUDE_DIRS})
+    % target_link_libraries(MYAPP ${LIBLOC}/libjsoncpp.so ${LIBDVIDCPP_LIBRARIES} ${CPPNETLIB_LIBRARIES} ${LIBLOC}/libboost_system.so ${LIBLOC}/libboost_thread.so ${LIBLOC}/libssl.so ${LIBLOC}/libcrypto.so
+
+Where MYAPP is the app you are building and LIBLOC is the location(s) of the listed libraries.
+
+### Find with CMake
+
+Add the following lines to your CMakelists.txt file
+
+    % find_package ( cppnetlib 0.11.0 REQUIRED )
+    % find_package ( libdvidcpp 0.1.0 REQUIRED )
+    
+### buildem application
+
+Follow the documentation in [buildem](https://github.com/janelia-flyem/buildem) and the example in this package to load buildem and add the following lines your CMakeLists.txt:
+    
+    % set (LIBLOC ${BUILDEM_DIR}/lib) 
+    % include (cppnetlib)
+    % include (libdvidcpp)
+    % add_dependencies (MYAPP ${libdvidcpp_NAME} ${cppnetlib_NAME})
+    
+The advantage of this approach is that you never have to explicitly build libdvid-cpp.  It is automatically built by buildem as an explicit dependency of your application.
+    
+## Example application
+
+Consult the application in *example* to see many of the API features exercised.  Applications should include \<libdvid/DVIDNode.h\>.  The API requires the creation of a DVID server type and a DVID node type corresponding to the htpp address where DVID is running and the UUID for the version of the desired repository.  Beyond this state, all API calls are stateless.
+    
+## TODO
+
+* Add test regressions
+* Improve performance of streaming large amounts of data by eliminating unnecessary copying.
+* Expand support to more datatype instances in DVID (like sparse volumes)
 
 ## Notes
     
-* Will not work if datatype is 2D
-* Communicates using uncompressed binary streams (should zip in the future)
+* Will not work if datatype instance is 2D (all requests for 2D use the DVID ND interface)
+* Currently communicates using uncompressed binary streams