Ghost Busters Come to the Rescue of NY Public Library
To call attention to impending budget cuts, the New York Public Library used a public awareness technique that is garnering national attention. The main branch of the library was invaded by sketch artists re-creating the first scene of the movie, Ghostbusters.
According to NYPL President and CEO Pau LeClerc, “We’re obviously facing a very difficult budget situation, so the question was how do we let people know about what we’re facing and what the consequences will be, because this is the people’s library.” Viral video expert Alex Scordelis, says, “We’re big fans of the library. We all use it a lot and we’re also big fans of Ghostbusters, so it was a perfect match. We were able to have fun and help them out at the same time so we were happy to do it.”
As of late Tuesday night the video had almost 30,000 views on You tube, after only being released earlier that day. LeClerc is hoping all the fun pays off, saying “you get all this entertainment but then you get the sense that this library is for everybody. It’s for the people. Anyone can get to work and if we’re not open then we’re depriving countless numbers of people from information”. New York City’s whole library system is facing a funding cut of $37 million. If the budget passes the liibrary stands to lose more than 700 employees, may close 10 branches, and go from being open an average of six days a week to four days, according to LeClerc.
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