Museum collection set to be a big hit on internet

A TINY Tears doll, Woody from Toy Story and a pair of metal roller skates may not seem like treasures worth preserving.

But they will be among the items appearing alongside more traditional artworks and artefacts as Edinburgh's museum collection is put online.

Up to 200,000 pieces from the city council's museums, galleries and libraries are to be added to a website to allow people to view the collections on the internet for the first time.

The council is currently in the process of digitising 200 items from its fine art collection and 100 pieces from the Museum of Childhood, which will be completed by the end of the year.

A further 1000 artworks and artefacts will be added to the website - www.capital collections.org.uk - in 2011.

The city council hopes to digitise the majority of the 200,000 pieces in its collections, but pointed out that this would be dependent on receiving a steady flow of funding.

The local authority received a 40,000 grant from the Museums Galleries Scotland Recognition Fund in April this year to go towards developing the website and putting images online.

Councillor Deidre Brock, the city's culture and leisure convener, said: "By digitising the city's nationally-recognised collections, we can reach a potentially unlimited audience all over the world.

"People will be able to access and enjoy our artworks and historical artefacts from the comfort of their own home.

"It's going to be a long process, but we're already making headway."

Edinburgh City Council manages nine museums and galleries - the City Art Centre, the Museum of Edinburgh, the Museum of Childhood, the Writers' Museum and Makar's Court, The People's Story, Lauriston Castle, Queensferry Museum, the Edinburgh Brass Rubbing Centre and the Travelling Gallery.

Photographs will be taken of each item in the collections and added to the website as part of the project, which is expected to take "many years" to complete.

More than 100 images from the Museum of Childhood and City Art Centre have already been put online, including a selection of toys from the last five decades, such as marbles, Scalextric and skateboards.

New images are being loaded on to the Capital Collections' online image library on a daily basis.

Among the items are paintings including The Parliament Close and Public Characters of Edinburgh by John Kay, which is one of many historical images of the city.

Work by contemporary Scottish artists, such as Jack Knox, John Bellany, Jock McFadyen and Wilhelmina Barns- Graham, will also be available to view online.

The council also aims to digitise photographs of monuments and statues in Edinburgh as part of the project, including the Scott Monument, Nelson Monument and Greyfriars Bobby.