diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index 16b659a..3803487 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ require 'rake/gempackagetask'
 require 'rake/contrib/rubyforgepublisher'
 
 GEM = "mongo"
-GEM_VERSION = '0.1.1'
+GEM_VERSION = '0.1.2'
 SUMMARY = 'Simple pure-Ruby driver for the 10gen Mongo DB'
 DESCRIPTION = 'This is a simple pure-Ruby driver for the 10gen Mongo DB. For more information about Mongo, see http://www.mongodb.org.'
 AUTHOR = 'Jim Menard'
diff --git a/lib/mongo/util/bson.rb b/lib/mongo/util/bson.rb
index 69cfd73..76033a8 100644
--- a/lib/mongo/util/bson.rb
+++ b/lib/mongo/util/bson.rb
@@ -252,7 +252,7 @@ class BSON
   end
 
   def deserialize_dbref_data(buf, key, parent)
-    ns = deserialize_cstr(buf)
+    ns = deserialize_string_data(buf)
     oid = deserialize_oid_data(buf)
     XGen::Mongo::Driver::DBRef.new(parent, key, @db, ns, oid)
   end
@@ -275,9 +275,7 @@ class BSON
   end
 
   def serialize_dbref_element(buf, key, val)
-    buf.put(REF)
-    self.class.serialize_cstr(buf, key)
-    self.class.serialize_cstr(buf, val.namespace)
+    serialize_string_element(buf, key, val.namespace, REF)
     buf.put_array(val.object_id.to_a)
   end