diff --git a/NEWS.txt b/NEWS.txt
index c839046918e6f955cd64dcb990ac3c22f5bf906f..df126616e69bcb34e6351c556fbdd0060343a8e8 100644
--- a/NEWS.txt
+++ b/NEWS.txt
@@ -1,16 +1,16 @@
-What's new in ZODB3 3.4.2a1?
-============================
+What's new in ZODB3 3.4.2?
+==========================
 Release date: DD-MMM-2005
 
 Following are dates of internal releases (to support ongoing Zope 2
 development) since ZODB 3.4's last public release:
 
-- 3.4.2a1 DD-MMM-2005
+- 3.4.2b1 03-Oct-2005
 
 Savepoints
 ----------
 
-- (3.4.2a1) As for deprecated subtransaction commits, the intent was
+- (3.4.2b1) As for deprecated subtransaction commits, the intent was
   that making a savepoint would invoke incremental garbage collection on
   Connection memory caches, to try to reduce the number of objects in
   cache to the configured cache size.  Due to an oversight, this didn't
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ Savepoints
 PersistentMapping
 -----------------
 
-- (3.4.2a1) The ``PersistentMapping`` class has an ``__iter__()`` method
+- (3.4.2b1) The ``PersistentMapping`` class has an ``__iter__()`` method
   now, so that objects of this type work well with Python's iteration
   protocol.  For example, if ``x`` is a ``PersistentMapping`` (or
   Python dictionary, or BTree, or ``PersistentDict``, ...), then
@@ -31,14 +31,14 @@ PersistentMapping
 BTrees
 ------
 
-- (3.4.2a1) Collector 1873.  It wasn't possible to construct a BTree or Bucket
+- (3.4.2b1) Collector 1873.  It wasn't possible to construct a BTree or Bucket
   from, or apply their update() methods to, a PersistentMapping or
   PersistentDict.  This works now.
 
 ZopeUndo
 --------
 
-- (3.4.2a1) Collector 1810. A previous bugfix (#1726) broke listing undoable
+- (3.4.2b1) Collector 1810. A previous bugfix (#1726) broke listing undoable
   transactions for users defined in a non-root acl_users folder. Zope logs
   a acl_users path together with a username (separated by a space) and this
   previous fix failed to take this into account.
diff --git a/doc/guide/zodb.tex b/doc/guide/zodb.tex
index 8d7f304a4b4b4670e17287698022f6e32b11eff5..562fcf20e306bd45163cd5ce43e6193495010834 100644
--- a/doc/guide/zodb.tex
+++ b/doc/guide/zodb.tex
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 \documentclass{howto}
 
 \title{ZODB/ZEO Programming Guide}
-\release{3.4.1}
+\release{3.4.2b1}
 \date{\today}
 
 \author{A.M.\ Kuchling}
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index ae239bc4b043552c51f2e99622fcb1d01f496ab6..b426f828706266da324bce821ba6b23438ead66d 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -264,7 +264,7 @@ class MyDistribution(Distribution):
 doclines = __doc__.split("\n")
 
 setup(name="ZODB3",
-      version="3.4.1",
+      version="3.4.2b1",
       maintainer="Zope Corporation",
       maintainer_email="zodb-dev@zope.org",
       url = "http://www.zope.org/Wikis/ZODB",
diff --git a/src/ZEO/__init__.py b/src/ZEO/__init__.py
index 981a207af49bb1f93947d340a09134c6f1cf6cd1..a0033c637abb5ace1da607f34f4a96a4e24b5c7f 100644
--- a/src/ZEO/__init__.py
+++ b/src/ZEO/__init__.py
@@ -22,4 +22,4 @@ ZEO is now part of ZODB; ZODB's home on the web is
 """
 
 # The next line must use double quotes, so release.py recognizes it.
-version = "3.4.1"
+version = "3.4.2b1"
diff --git a/src/ZEO/version.txt b/src/ZEO/version.txt
index 47b322c971c3ce34b223693982d647bf2e352923..a209172887ddab1a792c590b83a0afb68fbf95be 100644
--- a/src/ZEO/version.txt
+++ b/src/ZEO/version.txt
@@ -1 +1 @@
-3.4.1
+3.4.2b1
diff --git a/src/ZODB/__init__.py b/src/ZODB/__init__.py
index 57c63ff6acd0a6f8af35234a2c433364494ca824..56afa88f531b188a7da8a28e867daed548d860fe 100644
--- a/src/ZODB/__init__.py
+++ b/src/ZODB/__init__.py
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 ##############################################################################
 
 # The next line must use double quotes, so release.py recognizes it.
-__version__ = "3.4.1"
+__version__ = "3.4.2b1"
 
 import sys
 import __builtin__