chore: README: update backends list and wordsmithing

README.md

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 <!-- markdownlint-disable MD033 MD041 -->
 
 <p align="center">
-  <img src="https://github.com/radiantearth/stac-site/raw/master/images/logo/stac-030-long.png" width=400>
+  <img src="https://github.com/radiantearth/stac-site/raw/master/images/logo/stac-030-long.png" width=400 alt="SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog (STAC) logo">
   <p align="center">FastAPI implemention of the STAC API spec.</p>
 </p>
 <p align="center">
@@ -21,25 +21,35 @@
 
 ---
 
-Python library for building a STAC compliant FastAPI application.  The project is split up into several namespace
-packages:
+Python library for building a STAC-compliant FastAPI application.  
 
-| Package |  Description | Version
-| ------- |------------- | -------
-[**stac_fastapi.api**](https://github.com/stac-utils/stac-fastapi/tree/main/stac_fastapi/api) | An API layer which enforces the [stac-api-spec](https://github.com/radiantearth/stac-api-spec). | [![stac-fastapi.api](https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/stac-fastapi.api?color=%2334D058&label=pypi)](https://pypi.org/project/stac-fastapi.api)
-[**stac_fastapi.extensions**](https://github.com/stac-utils/stac-fastapi/tree/main/stac_fastapi/extensions) | Abstract base classes for [STAC API extensions](https://github.com/radiantearth/stac-api-spec/blob/master/extensions.md) and third-party extensions. | [![stac-fastapi.extensions](https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/stac-fastapi.extensions?color=%2334D058&label=pypi)](https://pypi.org/project/stac-fastapi.extensions)
-[**stac_fastapi.types**](https://github.com/stac-utils/stac-fastapi/tree/main/stac_fastapi/types) | Shared types and abstract base classes used by the library. | [![stac-fastapi.types](https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/stac-fastapi.types?color=%2334D058&label=pypi)](https://pypi.org/project/stac-fastapi.types)
+`stac-fastapi` was initially developed by [arturo-ai](https://github.com/arturo-ai).
+
+The project contains several namespace packages:
+
+| Package |  Description | Version |
+| ------- |------------- | ------- |
+| [**stac_fastapi.api**](https://github.com/stac-utils/stac-fastapi/tree/main/stac_fastapi/api) | An API layer which enforces the [stac-api-spec](https://github.com/radiantearth/stac-api-spec). | [![stac-fastapi.api](https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/stac-fastapi.api?color=%2334D058&label=pypi)](https://pypi.org/project/stac-fastapi.api) |
+| [**stac_fastapi.extensions**](https://github.com/stac-utils/stac-fastapi/tree/main/stac_fastapi/extensions) | Abstract base classes for [STAC API extensions](https://github.com/radiantearth/stac-api-spec/blob/master/extensions.md) and third-party extensions. | [![stac-fastapi.extensions](https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/stac-fastapi.extensions?color=%2334D058&label=pypi)](https://pypi.org/project/stac-fastapi.extensions) |
+| [**stac_fastapi.types**](https://github.com/stac-utils/stac-fastapi/tree/main/stac_fastapi/types) | Shared types and abstract base classes used by the library. | [![stac-fastapi.types](https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/stac-fastapi.types?color=%2334D058&label=pypi)](https://pypi.org/project/stac-fastapi.types) |
 
 #### Backends
 
-Backends are hosted in their own repositories:
+In addition to the packages in this repository, a server implemention will also require the selection of a backend to
+connect with a database for STAC metadata storage. There are several different backend options, and each has their own
+repository.
 
-- [stac-fastapi-pgstac](https://github.com/stac-utils/stac-fastapi-pgstac): Postgres backend implementation with [PgSTAC](https://github.com/stac-utils/pgstac).
-- [stac-fastapi-elasticsearch](https://github.com/stac-utils/stac-fastapi-elasticsearch-opensearch): Backend implementation with [Elasticsearch](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch).
-- [stac-fastapi-sqlalchemy](https://github.com/stac-utils/stac-fastapi-sqlalchemy): Postgres backend implementation with [sqlalchemy](https://www.sqlalchemy.org/).
+The two most widely-used and supported backends are:
 
-`stac-fastapi` was initially developed by [arturo-ai](https://github.com/arturo-ai).
+- [stac-fastapi-pgstac](https://github.com/stac-utils/stac-fastapi-pgstac): [PostgreSQL](https://github.com/postgres/postgres) + [PostGIS](https://github.com/postgis/postgis) via [PgSTAC](https://github.com/stac-utils/pgstac).
+- [stac-fastapi-elasticsearch-opensearch](https://github.com/stac-utils/stac-fastapi-elasticsearch-opensearch): [Elasticsearch](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch) or [OpenSearch](https://github.com/opensearch-project/OpenSearch)
 
+Other implementations include:
+
+- [stac-fastapi-mongo](https://github.com/Healy-Hyperspatial/stac-fastapi-mongo): [MongoDB](https://github.com/mongodb/mongo)
+- [stac-fastapi-geoparquet)](https://github.com/stac-utils/stac-fastapi-geoparquet): [GeoParquet](https://geoparquet.org) via [stacrs](https://github.com/stac-utils/stacrs) (experimental)
+- [stac-fastapi-duckdb](https://github.com/Healy-Hyperspatial/stac-fastapi-duckdb): [DuckDB](https://github.com/duckdb/duckdb) (experimental)
+- [stac-fastapi-sqlalchemy](https://github.com/stac-utils/stac-fastapi-sqlalchemy): [PostgreSQL](https://github.com/postgres/postgres) + [PostGIS](https://github.com/postgis/postgis) via [SQLAlchemy](https://www.sqlalchemy.org/) (abandoned in favor of stac-fastapi-pgstac)
 
 ## Response Model Validation
 
@@ -58,8 +68,6 @@ With the introduction of Pydantic 2, the extra [time it takes to validate models
 python -m pip install stac-fastapi.types stac-fastapi.api stac-fastapi.extensions
 
 # Install a backend of your choice
-python -m pip install stac-fastapi.sqlalchemy
-# or
 python -m pip install stac-fastapi.pgstac
 ```
 
@@ -81,3 +89,7 @@ To run the tests:
 ```shell
 python -m pytest
 ```
+
+## Releasing
+
+See [RELEASING.md](./RELEASING.md).