National Map Reading Week

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}

{{Use British English|date=January 2018}}

National Map Reading Week is an awareness campaign originally created by the Ordnance Survey, Britain's National Mapping Agency. It runs annually in the third week of October.{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/british-library-maps-exhibition-maps-and-the-20th-century-apps-ordnance-survey-a7383611.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/british-library-maps-exhibition-maps-and-the-20th-century-apps-ordnance-survey-a7383611.html |archive-date=18 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Back on the map: Why paper sometimes isn't enough to help you find your way|newspaper=The Independent|date=27 October 2016|accessdate=29 November 2016}}

The goal of the awareness week is to increase public use of maps and mapping services.{{cite web|title=OS #GetOutside: Map Reading Week 2016|url=https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/getoutside/guides/map-reading-week/|accessdate=21 September 2016}} This followed a public survey that demonstrated many British residents were unable to accurately place key cities on a map, including London and Birmingham.{{cite news|title=The Scilly Isles? Is that in Scotland| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/21/the-scilly-isles-is-that-in-scotland/|work=The Telegraph|accessdate=21 September 2016|date=21 September 2016}}

The worry over loss of skills is not a new one: research by the British Library shows concerns were expressed by historian and cartographer John Brian Hartley over the loss of traditional map skills as digital mapping was developed in the 1980s.{{cite web|title=Map Reading in the 20th Century|url=http://blogs.bl.uk/magnificentmaps/2016/10/map-reading-in-the-20th-century.html|website=British Library|publisher=British Library|accessdate=20 October 2016}}