diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 2b1e000053ab8f723a17e61c55bde4f634629b45..02e0ecc7947feeb985983cc6aa2d4e6823b56d04 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 # __python-common__
 
-
 This repository contains the common python files that are
 part of the [NOMAD Laboratory](http://nomad-lab.eu).
 The official version lives at
@@ -18,54 +17,20 @@ The simplest way to have this is to check out nomad-lab-base recursively:
 
 then this will be in python-common within it.
 
-# Local Install
-
-The following instructions were tested on Ubuntu 14.04. With these instructions
-you can install the package for the local user (doesn't need root privileges).
-First make sure you have [pip](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pip) available. If
-not, you can install it for python 2.x with:
-
-```sh
-wget https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py
-python get-pip.py --user
-```
-
-or for python3 with:
+# Installation
+The code is python>=2.7 and python>=3.4 compatible. First download and install
+this package:
 
 ```sh
-wget https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py
-python3 get-pip.py --user
+git clone https://gitlab.mpcdf.mpg.de/nomad-lab/python-common.git
+cd python-common
+pip install -r requirements.txt
+pip install -e .
 ```
 
-The modules used for parser development are located under the 'nomadcore'
-package. If you wish to setup this package locally, you can do so by first
-installing the required dependencies (use pip3 for python3 setup)
+Then download the metainfo definitions to the same folder where the
+'python-common' repository was cloned:
 
 ```sh
-pip install -r requirements.txt --user
-#pip3 install -r requirements.txt --user
+git clone https://gitlab.mpcdf.mpg.de/nomad-lab/nomad-meta-info.git
 ```
-
-and then installing the package itself with the provided installation
-script(use python3 for python3 setup)
-
-```sh
-python setup.py develop --user
-#python3 setup.py develop --user
-```
-
-This will install a development version, which means that if you update the
-source code, all the changes will be available immediately without reinstall of
-the package. The current setup also assumes a certain location for the metainfo
-repository. If you place all the repositories (python-common, nomad-meta-info,
-parser repository) in the same folder, things should work.
-
-After this the package will be available to import by simply calling
-
-```python
-import nomadcore
-```
-
-in python. The development mode also means that the latest version of the code
-is used, so any updates from git will automatically be available. You can
-install a static snapshot by using 'install' instead of 'develop'.