diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 91bf0ab..a7a4e44 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ Only accretive/fixative changes will be made from now on.
 
 * 1.3.next in progress
   * Address [#258](https://github.com/seancorfield/next-jdbc/issues/258) by updating all the library (driver) versions in Getting Started to match the latest versions being tested (from `deps.edn`).
+  * Update `tools.build` to 0.9.6 (and get rid of `template/pom.xml` in favor of new `:pom-data` option to `b/write-pom`).
 
 * 1.3.894 -- 2023-09-24
   * Fix [#257](https://github.com/seancorfield/next-jdbc/issues/257) by making the `fdef` spec for `with-transaction` more permissive. Also add specs for `on-connection` and the `+options` variants of both macros.
diff --git a/build.clj b/build.clj
index 705dfa5..a74d991 100644
--- a/build.clj
+++ b/build.clj
@@ -32,17 +32,32 @@
       (when-not (zero? exit) (throw (ex-info "Tests failed" {})))))
   opts)
 
+(defn- pom-template [version]
+  [[:description "The next generation of clojure.java.jdbc: a new low-level Clojure wrapper for JDBC-based access to databases."]
+   [:url "https://github.com/seancorfield/next-jdbc"]
+   [:licenses
+    [:license
+     [:name "Eclipse Public License"]
+     [:url "http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html"]]]
+   [:developers
+    [:developer
+     [:name "Sean Corfield"]]]
+   [:scm
+    [:url "https://github.com/seancorfield/next-jdbc"]
+    [:connection "scm:git:git://github.com/seancorfield/next-jdbc.git"]
+    [:developerConnection "scm:git:ssh://git@github.com/seancorfield/next-jdbc.git"]
+    [:tag (str "v" version)]]])
+
 (defn- jar-opts [opts]
   (let [version (if (:snapshot opts) snapshot version)]
     (assoc opts
-           :lib lib :version version
-           :jar-file (format "target/%s-%s.jar" lib version)
-           :scm {:tag (str "v" version)}
-           :basis (b/create-basis {})
+           :lib lib   :version version
+           :jar-file  (format "target/%s-%s.jar" lib version)
+           :basis     (b/create-basis {})
            :class-dir class-dir
-           :target "target"
-           :src-dirs ["src"]
-           :src-pom "template/pom.xml")))
+           :target    "target"
+           :src-dirs  ["src"]
+           :pom-data  (pom-template version))))
 
 (defn ci "Run the CI pipeline of tests (and build the JAR)." [opts]
   (test opts)
diff --git a/deps.edn b/deps.edn
index 59825f4..a848da8 100644
--- a/deps.edn
+++ b/deps.edn
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
         camel-snake-kebab/camel-snake-kebab {:mvn/version "0.4.3"}}
  :aliases
  {;; for help: clojure -A:deps -T:build help/doc
-  :build {:deps {io.github.clojure/tools.build {:mvn/version "0.9.5"}
+  :build {:deps {io.github.clojure/tools.build {:mvn/version "0.9.6"}
                  slipset/deps-deploy {:mvn/version "0.2.1"}}
           :ns-default build}
 
diff --git a/template/pom.xml b/template/pom.xml
deleted file mode 100644
index 442bb16..0000000
--- a/template/pom.xml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,23 +0,0 @@
-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
-<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
-  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
-  <name>next.jdbc</name>
-  <description>The next generation of clojure.java.jdbc: a new low-level Clojure wrapper for JDBC-based access to databases.</description>
-  <url>https://github.com/seancorfield/next-jdbc</url>
-  <licenses>
-    <license>
-      <name>Eclipse Public License</name>
-      <url>http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html</url>
-    </license>
-  </licenses>
-  <developers>
-    <developer>
-      <name>Sean Corfield</name>
-    </developer>
-  </developers>
-  <scm>
-    <url>https://github.com/seancorfield/next-jdbc</url>
-    <connection>scm:git:git://github.com/seancorfield/next-jdbc.git</connection>
-    <developerConnection>scm:git:ssh://git@github.com/seancorfield/next-jdbc.git</developerConnection>
-  </scm>
-</project>