Robyn Hoffman with her little library. Photo: RNZ/Katie Fitzgerald
An Auckland woman is on a mission to catalogue every Little Free Library in the region.
The neighbourhood book exchanges can be as low-key as a small wooden box filled with books for passersby to take, read and share.
Book lover Robyn Hoffman is determined to list each and every one of them; from as far north as Stanmore Bay to as far south as Waiuku.
"I've found around 175, and some more keep coming out of the woodwork. I started off with about 110 and then I just kept finding more and more, and I've kept looking."
Hoffman began by combining smaller sub-regional lists she managed to find online, before finding more libraries herself and travelling to each one with her daughter. It has not always been easy though.
"There are some that were really, really hard to find, and some that people said definitely were there and I cannot find them. There were a lot of libraries that were listed that didn't exist anymore, and so that was time consuming.
"But it's all in the fun of doing that with my daughter."
The little library runs on the idea of take a book, leave a book, and they've have been popping up around New Zealand for the last two decades.
Hoffman noticed some in her community and, along with some cooperation from the disability organisation she works for, she put together a few to set out in Papakura.
From there, it grew and grew. Now she has helped make and distribute 38 little libraries and another 14 are on order.
Of course, she has one outside her house as well and makes sure it's always stocked up.
"The bottom row is always children's books, and I try to put chapter books at one end, board books and then the bigger books at one end.
"The top shelf is a mixture, mostly at the moment it's fiction, and that can change - but generally it's fiction."
It's not just books that go in it though.
"I always have always put extra things in my library, so at the moment I have free seeds, so seeds are in here and I made 'seed bombs' which you just throw in the garden and spring flowers will come out."
It's an effort that has impressed Auckland councillor Julie Fairey, the original creator of the Auckland Central little libraries list before handing it over to Hoffman, who she said was the perfect person to take on the task
"In the past, sometimes I've set up community things and then I've needed to hand them on and there hasn't always naturally been someone. In this case, she picked it up before I even asked her to, which was amazing."
"I really strongly support what she's doing, and that's kind of the kaupapa with this kind of thing isn't it? It's about sharing and connecting."
Hoffman is certain she'll be kept busy as her list continues to grow - she's posting it on Facebook on her page Robyn's Fence Art & Little Free Libraries Auckland.
