diff --git a/.github/workflows/install_doctest_lint_typecheck.yml b/.github/workflows/install_doctest_lint_typecheck.yml
index f9e4daa..f05dd64 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/install_doctest_lint_typecheck.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/install_doctest_lint_typecheck.yml
@@ -76,5 +76,6 @@ jobs:
       - name: mypy
         run: |
           pip install numpy  # for the typing stubs
+          pip install importlib_metadata  # for the typing stubs
           python -m pip install pandas-stubs types-setuptools 
           mypy ncls
diff --git a/ncls/__init__.py b/ncls/__init__.py
index 799590d..960ae50 100644
--- a/ncls/__init__.py
+++ b/ncls/__init__.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
+import importlib_metadata
 import numpy as np
-import pkg_resources
 
-__version__ = pkg_resources.get_distribution("ncls").version
+__version__ = importlib_metadata.version("ncls")
 
 from ncls.src.ncls import NCLS64  # type: ignore
 from ncls.src.ncls32 import NCLS32  # type: ignore
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 861442a..504286c 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ classifiers = [
     "Topic :: Scientific/Engineering"
 ]
 keywords = ["ncls", "interval-tree", "genomics"]
-dependencies = ["numpy"]
+dependencies = ["numpy", "importlib_metadata"]
 
 [project.optional-dependencies]
 dev = ["black", "bumpver", "isort", "pip-tools", "pytest"]