The readme has too much unrelated content.
These sections should remain:
Header (image, title, Maven links)
Overview
If you would like to contribute
Build instructions

These sections should be removed. Leave a copy of the section header, but add a line that links to the new .md file. See the If you would like to contribute section for an example of how to do this.
Notes: Extract content, move to a new NOTES.md file
Files: Extract content, move to a new FILES.md file
Release History: Extract content, move to a new RELEASES.md file