New York's public libraries are facing the worst budget cuts in their history. Who are they going to call? Ghostbusters, of course.

With proposed funding cuts of almost US$37m (£26m), which officials predict would force the closure of 10 libraries, reduce opening hours at remaining branches and mean the loss of 736 members of staff, campaigners are asking concerned supporters to write to their elected officials about the cuts and to donate to the cause. The latest step in the campaign to raise awareness about the budget cuts, however, was a little more dramatic.

Readers in the New York Public Library's 100-year-old reading room were startled to see three "ghosts" settle down among them. This was an echo of the 1984 film's opening moments, in which the library features. One of the ghosts was initially stopped by a security guard (Guard: "Sir, what are you doing?" Ghost: "Um … haunting the library"), but seeing that the apparitions, clad in white sheets with holes for their eyes, weren't causing a disturbance – one was reading a book, one perusing the dictionary, one using the internet – people returned to their work. Minutes later, four Ghostbusters entered the room, chased the ghosts around desks and delighted tourists and herded them out into the streets.

The re-enactment was created by Improv Everywhere, whom the firm the library asked to stage a "mission" on its property "to remind people of how great the NYPL is" and to publicise its Don't Close the Book campaign. And all with no slime involved.