Thread by @juliefairey

Here's a happy thread of Niceness that I hope provides some cheer.

I started cataloguing and celebrating the Little Libraries of the Auckland isthmus a few months ago and it's a frequent source of joy

facebook.com/AKLLittleLibra… 1/n

I used to run fundraising second hand book sales for @CityVisionNZ. This was also a recycling effort, plus providing cheap books. What was intended to be my final sale was crashed by Covid and I had thousands of books stored downstairs at my house; they needed to go! 2/n

At the start of 2021 I began getting the boxes ready to start dropping off to the big Rotary etc sites. I managed a couple of car loads but then I broke my wrist and I couldn't drive or lift boxes for ages. By the time I could it was August 2021 & we were back in lockdown. 3/n

I found that lockdown extra hard. One thing that helped was sorting out the Big Mess Downstairs, including finishing the book boxes I had started. I would go downstairs with bad music on my ear buds & sing while I worked. 4/n

The plan was still to drop these boxes off to the big book fair sites, but of course lockdown continued and there was no sign of them re-opening. We had a Little Library down the road, the Albrecht Book Exchange. 5/n

I knew of another one in Vermont St, Ponsonby, and started to ask around about others, so I could pass on a few of these books I had, in these free book sharing spots. I figured this was a good way to make a bit of progress until the big sites reopened 6/n

I quickly found there were many more around than I had dreamed of, just from asking on community FB pages in nearby suburbs. There was the Book Stop in Three Kings for example, at a lovely little community sharing spot created during early lockdowns. It includes this artwork. 7/n

The local who started this for their neighbourhood was interviewed about his efforts here rnz.co.nz/international/… I think he may still have some fridges available, if anyone in AKL is interested let me know and I can hook you up 8/n

I figured there must be a list somewhere, or a website, but discovered there wasn't. By this point I'd been told about the Book Swap at Potter's Park - which is actually in its second incarnation now. It was created by two local kids as a sustainability and literacy project.9/n

After the first version was sadly burnt down by arson, the family of one of the original children approached a local Bunnings for some help and rebuilt it, bigger and better and now referred to as "Volume 2". When it's low a shoutout on the MAC FB page refills it. 10/n

By now I was going out on missions to find them and fill them, originally to get rid of all these books. I was finding each spot was a real community treasure that gave me a smile. I'd quickly heard about around 20, but I wasn't sure it was ok to spread the word. 11/n

I could see that some of them had similar styles - a lot like the one at Vermont St which I tweeted upthread. I wondered if those were done by the same people and I asked around my City Vision friends who often know about cool community stuff. 12/n

Sure enough one reckoned they had seen a book box of this style outside a house on Richmond Rd and thought the people who lived there might take care of them. It was still lockdown, although the looser rules by then allowed me to deliver and explore, so ... 13/n

... my medium junior associate and I ventured out to Ponsonby with some books and a note. We found not only a beautifully decorated book box but also a bench and a swing and a berm garden! I nervously left my polite note in the bench with my email and phone number. 14/n

A few days later I got an email from a couple who were yes responsible for the boxes I had found in Coyle Park, Gribblehirst Park, Vermont and Hakanoa Sts. They had been doing if for years, slowly but surely, and now had FOURTEEN around the place! 15/n

Fourteen was astonishing! It more than doubled the list I was starting to make to drop books off to. I was now finding I was going through the books quite quickly - with libraries shut and some people unable to afford delivered new books, Little Libraries were busy. 16/n

I had asked a builder friend to make me one for outside my house (our street is quite long so it serves a different crowd from the Albrecht Book Exchange) but it got stuck in lockdown. I was excited to find all these community caring gems hiding in plain sight and thought... 17/n

... why not see if their hosts are ok with me sharing them on a Facebook page to help others find them, and to celebrate them. I tentatively asked the couple with the 14 book boxes, by email, and started working out who was responsible for others. 18/n

The Godparents of Auckland Little Libraries, as I've come to refer to them, said yes please to my request, and I found others I approached were keen too. They were sharing the stories behind their book swap spots with me too. 19/n

There was a lot of discussion happening in various suburb Facebook pages, not least in Onehunga were there was a keen builder putting up one for each letter of the suburb's name around the place, in a similar style but each with its own character. 20/n

I started the Facebook page, facebook.com/AKLLittleLibra…, and tentatively messaged the Onehunga builder. He said yes! He had two more spots to find and I was able to connect him with a friend who lived on a main road in the area and was keen. 21/n

My friend is an English teacher so she was thrilled to have a conduit to share books, from her kids too. A few days after it was installed I visited and got this lucky pic, which still makes me smile. 22/n

Around the same a woman in Greenlane was getting interested in Little Libraries too and we connected up through FB community groups. She had found some I didn't know about and I was able to help her get in touch with the Eco Neighbourhoods programme for the area. 23/n

Eco Neighbourhoods helps groups of five or more households living in an area who want to work together on a sustainability project. There are compost collectives and community gardens and all sorts. You can find out more here: livelightly.nz/econeighbourho… 24/n

The woman from Greenlane found some interested neighbours and established the GREEN Team, for Greenlane and Epsom and they started working on installing three Little Libraries v quickly. I got to go to the opening of the second... 25/n

Max was a gorgeous cat who lived in a house next to one of the quieter entrances to One Tree Hill. He used to sit on a fence post and greet people and was well known in the neighbourhood. Sadly he was killed by a dog. 26/n

So Max's legacy lives on now, outside the house he lived in and still in the sharing spirit he had in life. Some of the Little Libraries I've found have heart-warming stories like this behind them, and it's so nice when people share what has prompted them to do this. 27/n

I've found well over 60 in central Auckland now, including Te Wero's Container Library, a sharing shelf up high in a stone gazebo at Shore Road Reserve, a delightful low fi one in Mt Eden, and a robust Glenavon cupboard with community pantry nearby. 28/n

I set up the page in October and in early November I was tipped off about a new one near Fowlds Park which also produces a local newsletter. 29/n

This one out east was the idea of these two sisters who live nearby and got help from the local Men's Shed. They too were inspired during a lockdown to connect safely, at a distance, with the neighbours to share. 30/n

I always get people's permission before I share (although in the case of the stone gazebo my efforts to find someone failed). Hosts will find me through being tagged on a FB community group post that I've put up, or will respond to a note I leave in their letterbox. 31/n

Most people say yes and are thrilled to have their book box acknowledged. I'm careful to keep the maps I create for them very local to encourage people to access their neighbourhood swap spot. I'm doing some suburb maps now... 32/n

... and I've recently found out about the phenomenon of "book bombing". It turns out I'd been doing it all along! Taking a few boxes or a bag of spare books around to a clutch of Little Libraries to drop them off and share. It's quite a thing in the USA. 33/n

I hope this thread brings some joy to you and I'll hopefully add some more of the generous and gorgeous book swapping spots I've found in the future - there are many more stories to tell and I suspect many more to dis cover! I'm really enjoying working on this... 34/n

... and I find that it's just the kind of community care that fills my cup. So I'll finish, for now, with a picture of the one I now have outside my own house. A friend built it and I've planted and painted and packed it. I love watching the books come and go. 35/n (tbc)