diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 2292cb47a28b70496b94699fa0b609560cd8ffb8..730af74e4074112a016b90a5f0e439437b342b49 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -21,7 +21,8 @@ $(pkgconfig_DATA): config.status
 
 EXTRA_DIST += \
   prepare.sh COPYRIGHT configure.ac uc-codes.cfg reformat.sh \
-  misc/README misc/ptrn_loggp-2.4.6.patch CONTRIBUTORS.md
+  misc/README misc/ptrn_loggp-2.4.6.patch CONTRIBUTORS.md \
+  README.md
 
 AM_CPPFLAGS = -I$(top_srcdir)/src ${ROSS_CFLAGS}
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 80fabd7f45d4a5dc03331531a650d6e24e39666b..eedaa5ba2a106dd530e36d7d55412120da28c137 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -4,4 +4,6 @@ CODES is a set of models and utilities to aid in building parallel discrete
 event simulations, on top of the ROSS simulation framework
 (https://github.com/carothersc/ROSS).
 
-Documentation can be found in the doc subdirectory.
\ No newline at end of file
+Documentation can be found in the doc subdirectory. Particularly,
+doc/BUILD\_STEPS documents the build process and doc/GETTING\_STARTED documents
+library features at a high level.