diff --git a/odml/fileio.py b/odml/fileio.py
index 2d095bd5..d9e52695 100644
--- a/odml/fileio.py
+++ b/odml/fileio.py
@@ -2,13 +2,14 @@
 from .tools.odmlparser import ODMLReader, ODMLWriter
 
 
-def load(filename, backend="xml"):
+def load(filename, backend="xml", show_warnings=True):
     """
     Load an odML document from file.
     :param filename: Path and filename from where the odML document
                      is to be loaded and parsed.
     :param backend: File format of the file containing the odML document.
                     The default format is XML.
+    :param show_warnings: Toggle whether to print warnings to the command line.
     :return: The parsed odML document.
     """
     if not os.path.exists(filename):
@@ -16,7 +17,7 @@ def load(filename, backend="xml"):
               (filename if len(filename) < 20 else "...%s" % filename[19:])
         raise FileNotFoundError(msg)
 
-    reader = ODMLReader(backend)
+    reader = ODMLReader(backend, show_warnings)
     return reader.from_file(filename)