2022 is the year of the UK’s first ever Platinum Jubilee. Queen Elizabeth II is the first monarch in British history to serve for over 70 years, and the UK is getting ready to celebrate! Here at the Library we are doing a number of things to celebrate. The UK Web Archive is inviting nominations for websites to be archived to a special Jubilee collection that will commemorate the event. You can read more about their project here and here, and nominate websites using this online form.

Inspired by Fortnum & Mason's Platinum Jubilee Pudding Competition, in Digital Scholarship we are encouraging you to upload images of your celebratory puddings and food to Wikimedia Commons.

Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. Image from Associated Press, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Wikimedia Commons is a collection of freely usable images that anyone can edit. We have created a simple set of Jubilee guidelines to help you upload your images: you can view and download it here. The most important thing to know about Commons is that everything you upload is then available under a Creative Commons license which allows it to be used, for free, by anyone in the world. The next time someone in Australia searches for a trifle, it may be yours they find! 

A guide written for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, instructing users how to upload their images to Wikimedia Commons.

You may be asking yourself what you should upload. You could have a look at specific Wikipedia entries for types of pudding or cake. Wikipedia images come from Commons, so if you spot something missing, you can upload your image and it can then be used in the Wikipedia entry. You might want to think regionally, making barmbrack from Ireland, Welsh cakes, Scottish cranachan or parkin from northern England. If you’re feeling adventurous, why not crack out the lemon and amaretti and try your hand at the official Jubilee pudding?

How to make your images platinum quality:

• Make sure your images are clear, not blurry.
• Make sure they are high resolution: most phone cameras are now very powerful, but if you have a knack for photography, a real camera may come in useful.
• Keep your background clear, and make sure the image is colourful and well-lit.
• Ask yourself if it looks like pudding – sometimes an image that is too close up can be indistinct.

Image of cake courtesy of Ainali, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

NB: Please add the category 'British Library Platinum Pudding Drive' to your uploads. You can see instructions on how to add categories here. from 3.19 onwards.

We can’t wait to see your images. The Wikimedia Foundation recently ran a series of events for Image Description Week – check out their resources to help and support your uploads, making sure that you are describing your images in an accessible way. Remember to nominate any websites you’d like to see archived at the UK Web Archive, and if your local library is part of the Living Knowledge Network, keep an eye out for our commemorative postcards, which contain links to both the Web Archive drive and our Commons instructions.

We have events running at the Library to celebrate the Jubilee, such as the Platinum Jubilee Pudding at St Pancras on Monday 23^rd May, and A Queen For All Seasons on Thursday 26^th May. There is also a fantastic Food Season running until the end of May, with a wide array of events and talks. You can book tickets for upcoming events via the Events page.

Happy Jubilee!