The multimedia design students created animations to recognize Banned Books Week. Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom “tracked 729 challenges to library, school and university materials and services in 2021, resulting in more than 1,597 individual book challenges or removals. Most targeted books were by or about Black or LGBTQIA+ persons.”

The theme this year is “Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us.”