diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 268179b..7e8e074 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,5 +1,25 @@
 # activitypub
 
+This is a Python library to use with
+[ActivityPub](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ActivityPub). ActivityPub
+is an API for an open, distributed, social network.
+
+## Install
+
+You can install the development version of activitypub with:
+
+```
+pip install git+git://github.com/dsblank/activitypub
+```
+
+or the last packaged version with:
+
+```
+pip install activitypub
+```
+
+## Abstractions
+
 This module is designed to be a generally useful ActivityPub library in Python. It targets three different levels of use:
 
 * ActivityPub object API
diff --git a/activitypub/database/mongodb.py b/activitypub/database/mongodb.py
index d1780c5..2cc2221 100644
--- a/activitypub/database/mongodb.py
+++ b/activitypub/database/mongodb.py
@@ -1,4 +1,8 @@
-from pymongo import MongoClient
+try:
+    from pymongo import MongoClient
+except:
+    def MongoClient(*args, **kwargs):
+        raise Exception("You need to install pymongo")
 
 from .base import Database, Table
 
diff --git a/activitypub/database/redisdb.py b/activitypub/database/redisdb.py
index 109f16b..bfd0a1c 100644
--- a/activitypub/database/redisdb.py
+++ b/activitypub/database/redisdb.py
@@ -1,5 +1,11 @@
-from redis_collections import List
-import redis
+try:
+    import redis
+    from redis_collections import List
+    from_url = redis.StrictRedis.from_url
+except:
+    def from_url(*args, **kwargs):
+        raise Exception("You need to install redis and redis_collections")
+
 from .listdb import ListTable
 from .base import Database
 
@@ -16,5 +22,5 @@ class RedisDatabase(Database):
         * "redis://localhost:6379"
         * "redis://localhost:6379/0"
         """
-        self.redis = redis.StrictRedis.from_url(url, **kwargs) if url else None
+        self.redis = from_url(url, **kwargs) if url else None
         super().__init__()
diff --git a/activitypub/database/sqldb.py b/activitypub/database/sqldb.py
index 2bccfd5..2c9a52c 100644
--- a/activitypub/database/sqldb.py
+++ b/activitypub/database/sqldb.py
@@ -1,6 +1,12 @@
-from sqlalchemy import create_engine, inspect
-from sqlalchemy.orm import scoped_session, sessionmaker
-from sqlalchemy.pool import StaticPool
+
+try:
+    from sqlalchemy import create_engine, inspect
+    from sqlalchemy.orm import scoped_session, sessionmaker
+    from sqlalchemy.pool import StaticPool
+except:
+    def create_engine(*args, **kwargs):
+        raise Exception("You need to install sqlalchemy")
+    
 import logging
 import json
 
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index de4887b..e69de29 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-pymongo
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index a41316e..a487394 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ setup(name='activitypub',
       author='Douglas S. Blank',
       author_email='doug.blank@gmail.com',
       url='https://github.com/dsblank/activitypub',
-      install_requires=['pymongo'],
+      install_requires=[],
       packages=find_packages(include=['activitypub', 'activitypub.*']),
       include_data_files = True,
       test_suite = 'nose.collector',