...

build.xml

diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index a9f0606..a45b979 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@
     <property name="IMPL_TITLE_SMILE" value="Jackson Binary format (aka Smile) handling functionality" />
     <property name="IMPL_TITLE_MRBEAN" value="Jackson Bean Materializer (aka Mr. Bean)" />
 
-    <property name="IMPL_VERSION" value="1.9.7" />
+    <property name="IMPL_VERSION" value="1.9.8" />
     <property name="IMPL_VENDOR" value="http://fasterxml.com" />
 
     <patternset id="dist-all-source-files">

release-notes/VERSION

diff --git a/release-notes/VERSION b/release-notes/VERSION
index 72260fd..cf781ad 100644
--- a/release-notes/VERSION
+++ b/release-notes/VERSION
@@ -1,11 +1,19 @@
-Version: 1.9.7
+Version: 1.9.8
 
 Release date:
-  02-May-2012
+  xx-Xxx-2012
 
 Description:
   Another patch release for 1.9.
 
+Fixes:
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+=== History: ===
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.9.7 [02-May-2012]
+
   Fixes:
 
   * [Smile/Issue-2] SmileParser failed to decode surrogate-pair characters for
@@ -31,10 +39,6 @@
   * [JACKSON-834] Could not use @JsonFactory with non-String argument with Enums
    (reported by Klaus R)
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-=== History: ===
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
 1.9.6 [26-Mar-2012]
 
   Fixes: