It was briefly "The Case of the Disappearing Library", but this particular story time had a happy ending.
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When Skye De Ath and her daughters Max, 4, and River, 3, set up their little street library - a style of book exchange becoming more common all over the world - they were hoping to see people wander past and take books home to read, or drop some in.
"It was sort of an experiment, to see if people used it," said Skye.
"The girls had been gifted so many books for their birthdays and there were double ups, so we thought it would be nice if we could share them."
The family, including dad Jye, painted a shelving unit, put up little solar lights (plus a pump pack of hand sanitiser, of course) and filled it with books.
"We eventually want to get a better library online, but we didn't want to buy one if it didn't work," said Skye.
"We assumed people would know what it is."
Unfortunately, within hours the whole library - shelving, books and all - had disappeared from the corner of Montague and Cowper Streets in Goulburn.
On Sunday, an unhappy Skye took to social media to express her disappointment, with many Facebook group members sharing her anger.
But as it turned out, it was all an honest mistake, and the library was back in its place by Monday.
"We got our little library back!" a much happier Skye announced on social media.
"Thank you so much for returning it and thank you everyone who reached out with offers of books!
"We will set it back up and make sure there is better signage.
"Feel free to stop by and borrow a book or leave a book."
She told The Goulburn Post that the library was returned with all its contents, a nice note and some stickers for the children.
"I think they thought it was just out on the street as rubbish," said Skye.
"So we've had lots of people reach out and offer some signs so it's more obvious what it's for."
In fact, the disappearance of the library has proved to be a bonus, according to Skye, with greater awareness raised, and lots of community engagement.
"Someone left some plant cuttings for free, and someone's left more books," she said.
"It's been a really nice community thing."
If it continues to be popular, they hope to buy a better unit with a glass front to protect the books from the weather.
