diff --git a/cdx_toolkit/__init__.py b/cdx_toolkit/__init__.py
index c27845a..6d8978a 100644
--- a/cdx_toolkit/__init__.py
+++ b/cdx_toolkit/__init__.py
@@ -1,10 +1,15 @@
 import logging
 import json
-from pkg_resources import get_distribution, DistributionNotFound
 from collections.abc import MutableMapping
 import sys
 import warnings
 
+try:
+    from importlib.metadata import version, PackageNotFoundError
+except ImportError:
+    # Python < 3.8 compatibility
+    from importlib_metadata import version, PackageNotFoundError
+
 __version__ = 'installed-from-git'
 
 from .myrequests import myrequests_get
@@ -17,8 +22,8 @@
 
 try:
     # this works for the pip-installed package
-    __version__ = get_distribution(__name__).version
-except DistributionNotFound:  # pragma: no cover
+    __version__ = version(__name__)
+except PackageNotFoundError:  # pragma: no cover
     pass