diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 81a1fa3..c1c73a8 100755
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,31 +1,31 @@
 # HPC IO Benchmark Repository [![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/hpc/ior.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/hpc/ior)
 
-This repo now contains both IOR and mdtest.
-See also NOTES.txt
+This repository contains the IOR and mdtest parallel I/O benchmarks.  The
+[official IOR/mdtest documention][] can be found in the `docs/` subdirectory or
+on Read the Docs.
 
-# Building
+## Building
 
-0. If "configure" is missing from the top level directory, you
-   probably retrieved this code directly from the repository.
-   Run "./bootstrap".
+1. If `configure` is missing from the top level directory, you probably
+   retrieved this code directly from the repository.  Run `./bootstrap`
+   to generate the configure script.  Alternatively, download an
+   [official IOR release][] which includes the configure script.
 
-   If your versions of the autotools are not new enough to run
-   this script, download and official tarball in which the
-   configure script is already provided.
+1. Run `./configure`.  For a full list of configuration options, use
+   `./configure --help`.
 
-1. Run "./configure"
+2. Run `make`
 
-   See "./configure --help" for configuration options.
+3. Optionally, run `make install`.  The installation prefix
+   can be changed via `./configure --prefix=...`.
 
-2. Run "make"
+## Testing
 
-3. Optionally, run "make install".  The installation prefix
-   can be changed as an option to the "configure" script.
+* Run `make check` to invoke the unit tests.
+* More comprehensive functionality tests are included in `testing/`.  These
+  scripts will launch IOR and mdtest via MPI.
+* Docker scripts are also provided in `testing/docker/` to test various
+  distributions at once.  
 
-# Testing
-
-  Run "make check" to invoke the unit test framework of Automake.
-
-  * To run basic functionality tests that we use for continuous integration, see ./testing/
-  * There are docker scripts provided to test various distributions at once.
-  * See ./testing/docker/
+[official IOR release]: https://github.com/hpc/ior/releases
+[official IOR/mdtest documention]: http://ior.readthedocs.org/