Kids and parents are being encouraged to go ahead with their costumes for the long-running literary week, after the COVID-19 outbreak in Canberra saw a move to remote learning for most students.

And for those really stretched for ideas: you can in fact dress your child in a paper bag (and claim it as a feminist statement, no less).

Libraries ACT executive branch manager Vanessa Little will be dressing up as the Paper Bag Princess, from the children's book of the same name, which subverts the typical damsel-in-distress tale.

"We've heard of a number of kids who are really disappointed about not being able to go to school in their costumes," she said.

"But we're asking them to dress up anyway and to take a photo and post that photo to our Facebook page, so that we can continue to see what everybody's up to and celebrated."

"Library staff are doing the same, so they're just as disappointed as kids because library staff love to dress up on Book Week."

And while deep sighs and begrudging trips to the craft cupboard may take place, the impacts of Book Week for childrens' relationship with reading are profound, Ms Little said.

"It certainly focuses their attention and gives them a sense that books are to be celebrated, and that they are part of ... people's lives," she said.

Book Week is also an opportunity for kids to express their individuality through their favourite stories.

"It's about them being able to express what it is that they like," Ms Little said.

"It's so important that kids read because it's ... a setup for for later life. A good reader in their early years is somebody who's highly literate later in their life and is able to learn and have a really successful life."

Meantime, ACT Libraries have seen a big uptick in online resources during lockdown.

Story Box, a service which offers children's stories, is up 323 per cent, while streaming service Kanopy is up 67 per cent.

Similar increases recorded in Canberra's 2020 lockdown translated to more people using library services in general.

"We dropped a little bit when things were opened up again, but we didn't go back down to where they were previous to the lockdown," Ms Little said.

"So certainly it's introduced people to these services, and some people have maintained the use of them."

ACT Libraries is also appealing to adults not to forget the respite reading can offer amid a pandemic which has seized control of the narrative.

The Too Busy Book Club will target time-poor Canberrans who intend to read more, but can't make big time commitments.

"One of the things we find ... in so many of the things we do [is that] people in Canberra are still big readers, but they're very time-poor," Ms Little said.

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