Images for Freedom to Read Week 2025 feature bees pollinating flowers comprised of text.

This year, Freedom to Read Week will be kicking off with a national day of digital action for champions of intellectual freedom to share their commitment to the annual week-long event.

Libraries across Canada always run their own local events during Freedom to Read Week, which takes place this year from Feb. 23 to March 1. The day of digital action on Feb. 24 gives everyone an opportunity to participate in a united celebration of libraries’ commitment to intellectual freedom.

At 12 p.m. EST on Feb. 24, libraries and individuals and associations are encouraged to participate by posting to social media with the hashtags #FTRW25 and #FreedomToRead to demonstrate a shared commitment to intellectual freedom.

“Often times when we talk about intellectual freedom, we’re responding to something, and so to be proactive and to assert the importance of it with our peers, we’re really excited to take part and are really encouraged by the response,” says Mary Kapusta, director of communications and engagement at the Calgary Public Library, who sits on the Freedom to Read committee.

The Day of Digital Action is just one small part of the week’s events, but it gives libraries across the country the chance to come together and raise awareness of intellectual freedom and draw online attention to Freedom to Read Week, Kapusta says.

“It’s really powerful when you think about all the ways that libraries can amplify each other and people that support intellectual freedom can show their support in an online way,” she says.

More information about how to participate in the digital day of action, as well as event listings, can be found at the Freedom to Read website.

This year marks the 41st edition of Freedom to Read Week. It is the second year that the event is being co-led by Library and Archives Canada, the Canadian Urban Library Council, and the Ontario Library Association in partnership with the Book and Periodical Council.

Freedom to Read Week started in 1984 in response to efforts in the late 1970s in Ontario’s Huron County and in Lakefield, Ontario, to ban Margaret Laurence’s Governor General’s Award-winning novel, The Diviners, from schools.