Prepare for the next release candidate
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5ef6bc7..c553b21 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -50,7 +50,8 @@
 [![CodeQL](https://github.com/apache/commons-text/actions/workflows/codeql-analysis.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/apache/commons-text/actions/workflows/codeql-analysis.yml)
 [![OpenSSF Scorecard](https://api.securityscorecards.dev/projects/github.com/apache/commons-text/badge)](https://api.securityscorecards.dev/projects/github.com/apache/commons-text)
 
-Apache Commons Text is a library focused on algorithms working on strings.
+Apache Commons Text is a set of utility functions and reusable components for the purpose of processing
+    and manipulating text that should be of use in a Java environment.
 
 Documentation
 -------------
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index fc465c8..5ac1b72 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@
     <version>69</version>
   </parent>
   <artifactId>commons-text</artifactId>
-  <version>1.12.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+  <version>1.12.0</version>
   <name>Apache Commons Text</name>
   <description>Apache Commons Text is a set of utility functions and reusable components for the purpose of processing
     and manipulating text that should be of use in a Java environment.
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
   <properties>
     <project.build.sourceEncoding>ISO-8859-1</project.build.sourceEncoding>
     <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
-    <project.build.outputTimestamp>2024-01-01T00:00:00Z</project.build.outputTimestamp>
+    <project.build.outputTimestamp>2024-04-13T13:15:17Z</project.build.outputTimestamp>
     <maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
     <maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>