Groundbreaking new approach to sharing memories of Edinburgh’s people and places from past and present has been developed by the City of Edinburgh Council.

Edinburgh Collected is an online service giving both local people and anyone around the world with a love of Edinburgh the opportunity to make their photographs part of the city’s heritage collection, by sharing their family, friends, city and holiday photos and personal memories, on the website.

All of these images are openly available to be viewed and shared through social media, and by creating our own Edinburgh Collected scrapbooks.

The project will make both historical and current pictures available. The images will be saved for the future and will expand existing collections held online and in the capital’s libraries and museums.

Edinburgh Collected has been jointly funded by the City of Edinburgh Council and Nesta, an innovation charity whose mission is to help people and organisations bring great ideas to life.

Anyone interested in joining this new online community and sharing their photos should take a look at the Edinburgh Collected website.

Councillor Richard Lewis, Culture and Sport Convener, said: “Edinburgh Collected is a unique way in which to see the city through a different view, through other people’s eyes, and the selections that have been uploaded so far are fantastic.

“Central Library already holds the largest public collection about Edinburgh in existence, and this new project is a modern way of perfectly complementing it.

“The Capital Coalition is committed to preserving the heritage of the city and ensuring that people continue to have access to a rich resource of quality material.”

Councillor Frank Ross, Edinburgh’s Digital Champion, added: “Edinburgh Collected is an innovative way of creating history using technology. Nesta – through the Open Data Scotland project – gave us invaluable help in making this possible, and has been an ideal example of how using open data can really enhance the work that we do.”