How long do you have to live in a city before you find out about its secret underground library? In my case, I guess itā€™s 10 months, because I just heard about the tiny New York Public Library branch (the Terence Cardinal Cooke-Cathedral Branch, officially) tucked away in a subway station. 

The underground branch lives outside the turnstiles at the 51st Street 6 stop, and it sounds like a sort of literacy-and-public-transit-themed Cheers. ā€œYou see the same people all the time,ā€ patron Melissa Britt told the New York Times in 2010. ā€œYou canā€™t find this place unless someone tells you about it.ā€ Another patron added, ā€œIf you donā€™t take the train, youā€™d probably never even know this place exists.ā€

Most people who use this branch ā€œdonā€™t come here for serious research,ā€ says the branch manager ā€” they want page-turners for the commute ā€” but donā€™t think the librarians donā€™t offer reference services. ā€œThey come in asking for help with the MetroCard machine,ā€ the manager told the Times. ā€œWe do help them if weā€™re not too busy, and they also ask us for subway maps, so we keep a lot of them on hand.ā€

H/t @debcha