Library Notes
John Tucker
Finding and Mapping your Course-Orienteering

    A new craze has taken hold in Charlotte and throughout the south-Orienteering.   It is the skill of charting and finding your way by use of a compass and map.  This outdoor activity began in 1919 by a Swiss scout leader who believed that the activity was not simply a survival skill, but a fun event for scouts and families.   In the year 1961, the International Orienteering Federation was formed and in 1971 the United States Orienteering Federation became a reality.  Orienteering has been a long time competition in the Olympics but until recently was only talked about in circles of Boy and Girl Scouts.  The Public Library has always been the go-to-resource for finding your way with information and this skill of Orienteering is no different.

    The Scout Merit Badge Series; “Orienteering” published by the Boy Scouts of America would be the first resource to investigate.  This booklet describes the fun in learning to use a compass and a map.  It sounds so basic, but the truth is that explorers like Lewis and Clark, Marco Polo, and Amelia Earhart used these same skills to cross many new horizons.  Today, competitions for Orienteers are growing in number at scout camps and merit badge outings, but also local programs for families and teams of friends.   This book presents two types of Orienteering, score orienteering and cross country orienteering.  The later event is like the television show the Great Race-finding one’s way around the countryside unassisted.  After reading this text we might leave the GPS device at home and participate in the skill that will keep us from getting lost in the world.

    A second book to investigate is “Maps and Compass: the Complete Orienteering Handbook” written by Bjorn Kjellstrom.   Being oriented to one’s surroundings and charting a course through the unknown sounds like a true skill for life.  Orienting skills are used by surveyors, engineers, military personal, hunters and fishermen, backpackers, sailors, and camp counselors searching for “lost sheep”, cross-country runners and cyclists who chose their routes as opposed to following a predetermined course.   For most of us orienteering skills solely embrace our ability to read a road map in preparation of  a family vacation.  This text is broken up into user friendly chapters beginning with map reading, compass skills and then the adventure of putting them together in the field.

    A third resource to consider is titled “Orienteering: The Skills of the Game” by Carol McNeill.   For those who are competitively minded this book will help to refine your skills.  From experienced guides to young  explorers this book will help you enjoy your time in the field.  Skills covered include: aiming off, punch and run, and running on the compass needle.  Speed is the main point in this text so that you can increase the odds that your team will come in first place.

    Getting oriented is indeed a life skill that enables us to select a course, map out our path, and check our progress along the way.  We all look for help when “orienting ourselves” in a new direction such as times of a career change, education or finding a job.  We map out our career path and obstacles that might challenge our charted path.  As an avid sailor I would not be able to sail the lakes, rivers and waterways of North Carolina unless I had and followed an accurate map.  Such maps keep me safe as well as those who travel with me.  The same holds true for planes, trains and automobiles.  Remember that LIFE happens along the journey and not simply at the end of the road.  Our lives are better enriched as we become oriented to our surroundings.  This process can begin with a single trip to the public library.  We simply need to know which direction we wish to discover.  Happy Reading!