No this isn’t a Halloween post that was accidentally released early. The New York Public Library contacted the folks at Improve Everywhere to stage a scene from Ghostbusters in the library to help bring awareness about the library as they face a funding cut of $37,000,000 which could cost 700 employees their jobs, the closure of 10 branches, and force the the library to be open four days a week instead of six.
Click the link to watch the YouTube video.
Improv Everywhere’s NY Public Library Ghostbusters
- Ghostbusters entering NY Public Library looking for ghosts.
The video is funny, but the back story and preparation that the Improv Everywhere people did before hand is pretty interesting. Check out their post, “Who You Gonna Call“, to see that there was a lot more than just running in the library in costumes. They had a map of the reading room, planned camera angles, etc.
I am not sure what the relationship between ghosts and Ghostbusters have to with library funding cuts. My guess their intention was to get the attention of people through a viral video and then mention the funding cuts to the already attentive audience. Which this has done because it has been picked up by many news outlets already. Bravo. A win, win for both the library and the improv group. There was definitely a creative mind(s) at the library, because I am pretty sure that most people would not have thought of this approach to address the funding issue