Neatly, elegantly tucked away behind New York construction, with mesh signs containing decorative quotes ranging from Ayn Rand to Truman Capote to Jay Z that praise a glorious vision of New York, 58th Street Library is a hidden gem. It quietly, stoically, and impressively holds its own amidst the cacophony of Midtown Manhattan. 

58th Street Library is situated in the heart of an affluent business district, with the highest per capita income in all of NYC. The neighborhood boasts business headquarters like Bloomberg, Univision, and DC Comics, and the city's heart and veins lie in its various skyscrapers and large apartment towers. This congested section of New York thrives in its own chaotic, whirlwind world.

I met with John Bhagwandin, the Library Manager, on a quiet, Tuesday afternoon, eager to discover what makes 58th Steet so unique.

Catering to the business men and women in the area, 58th Street is known as the Adult Library, or perhaps, more fondly, as the "lunch library". With its peak hours around lunch time, 58th Street attracts the business crowd, who flock to this spot in order to find a quiet oasis to read, learn, and explore. The library welcomes its patrons with warm blues and liquid oranges in a gorgeous mural that covers the entryway—a mural painted last year by Menglei Sun. When entering and leaving the library, one can see its continuing presence on the sides of prominent bookshelves: On four panels, Sun also painted, "READ, WRITE, LISTEN, and THINK" in warm, inviting, oranges.

58th Street Library boasts a lot of firsts: It was the first audio recording library at NYPL, where professional readers would come and record (Katherine Hepburn used to frequent the audio lab, and even current celebrity personalities that live nearby continue to come to the branch and record), the first library to introduce Microsoft PowerPoint to businesses around the neighborhood, and it was the first library to provide a computer training lab for all libraries in the NYPL system, to name a few. However, its priority lies in computer literacy: It is known as the training center besides Mid-Manhattan Library, with up to 30 trainings per month. The training sessions include everything from creating a resume/cover letter to how to use social media. All sessions provide training for Microsoft Office. 58th Street also offers proctor services, with up to 40 exams given per month. With monitoring and booking exams, the library deals with tremendous demand from students, interns, and those working in NYC looking to take exams. Anywhere outside of the library, the cost for a proctor can be up to $60/hour; here, it's absolutely free of charge.

Not only does the Library cater its needs to its particular patrons, it also has taken on other endeavors from surrounding programs in the neighborhood. Lighthouse International, a neighboring program, offered services to the visually impaired, giving their students one-on-one training with reading and writing. Unfortunately, the program was cut last year; however, in June of this year, 58th Street library took over the program, and now, every Thursday afternoon, students are able to meet with instructors and continue their learning. By providing this resource, 58th Street furthers the Lighthouse legacy of providing valuable and necessary aid to its students.

Aside from its many trainings, the library also offers lectures, drama presentations, musical recitals, yoga sessions, and other free events throughout the year. It's also part of East Midtown Partnership, which recently held a competition in which college students in photography classes took pictures of buildings around NYC. The winners’ photos are currently displayed throughout the two-story branch. Also on display is Jan Lourie's photography exhibition of artist Tony Rosenthal's Rondo, the sculpture also currently masked by construction. Each photo provides a different angle, a different piece of the puzzle. Titled "Contagion of Creativity", these small, square photographs elegantly decorate the first floor.

Through visiting 58th Street and meeting one-on-one with a passionate and knowledgeable manager, I've learned that all of our branches are so diverse; there's no cookie-cutter formula that feeds these systems. Staff create their own recipe to reach out to their patrons, determining the needs of their neighborhood, and then meeting—even exceeding—their patrons' expectations.