diff --git a/rq/__init__.py b/rq/__init__.py
index 18203546..3f9fa3cf 100644
--- a/rq/__init__.py
+++ b/rq/__init__.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ from redis import Redis
 from .proxy import conn
 from .queue import Queue
 from .worker import Worker
+from .version import VERSION
 
 def use_redis(redis=None):
     """Pushes the given Redis connection (a redis.Redis instance) onto the
@@ -18,3 +19,4 @@ def use_redis(redis=None):
     conn.push(redis)
 
 __all__ = ['conn', 'Queue', 'Worker', 'use_redis']
+__version__ = VERSION
diff --git a/rq/version.py b/rq/version.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d0bd79f2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rq/version.py
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+VERSION = '0.1'
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 90d205ac..26ee4528 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -2,11 +2,20 @@
 rq is a simple, lightweight, library for creating background jobs, and
 processing them.
 """
-from setuptools import Command, setup
+import os
+from setuptools import setup
+
+def get_version():
+    basedir = os.path.dirname(__file__)
+    with open(os.path.join(basedir, 'rq/version.py')) as f:
+        VERSION = None
+        exec(f.read())
+        return VERSION
+    raise RuntimeError('No version info found.')
 
 setup(
     name='rq',
-    version='0.1-dev',
+    version=get_version(),
     url='https://github.com/nvie/rq/',
     license='BSD',
     author='Vincent Driessen',