diff --git a/googleapiclient/model.py b/googleapiclient/model.py
index b023db4..3d1f397 100644
--- a/googleapiclient/model.py
+++ b/googleapiclient/model.py
@@ -26,12 +26,12 @@
 import json
 import logging
 import platform
-import pkg_resources
 import urllib
 
+from googleapiclient import version as googleapiclient_version
 from googleapiclient.errors import HttpError
 
-_LIBRARY_VERSION = pkg_resources.get_distribution("google-api-python-client").version
+_LIBRARY_VERSION = googleapiclient_version.__version__
 _PY_VERSION = platform.python_version()
 
 LOGGER = logging.getLogger(__name__)
diff --git a/googleapiclient/version.py b/googleapiclient/version.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5b915ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/googleapiclient/version.py
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+# Copyright 2021 Google LLC
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+__version__ = "2.33.0" 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index ed8fa9b..a311f16 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -51,7 +51,12 @@
 with io.open(readme_filename, encoding="utf-8") as readme_file:
     readme = readme_file.read()
 
-version = "2.33.0"
+package_root = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
+
+version = {}
+with open(os.path.join(package_root, "googleapiclient/version.py")) as fp:
+    exec(fp.read(), version)
+version = version["__version__"]
 
 setup(
     name="google-api-python-client",
diff --git a/tests/test_json_model.py b/tests/test_json_model.py
index 322a7b4..533361c 100644
--- a/tests/test_json_model.py
+++ b/tests/test_json_model.py
@@ -25,17 +25,17 @@
 import io
 import httplib2
 import json
-import pkg_resources
 import platform
 import unittest
 import urllib
 
 import googleapiclient.model
 
+from googleapiclient import version as googleapiclient_version
 from googleapiclient.errors import HttpError
 from googleapiclient.model import JsonModel
 
-_LIBRARY_VERSION = pkg_resources.get_distribution("google-api-python-client").version
+_LIBRARY_VERSION = googleapiclient_version.__version__
 CSV_TEXT_MOCK = 'column1,column2,column3\nstring1,1.2,string2'