The New York Public Library is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States, behind only the Library of Congress. It is an independently managed, non-profit corporation operating with both private and public financing. The library has branches in the boroughs of Manhattan, The Bronx and Staten Island and it has affiliations with academic and professional libraries in the metropolitan area of New York State. The City of New York's other two boroughs, Brooklyn and Queens, are served by the Brooklyn Public Library and the Queens Borough Public Library, respectively. The branch libraries are open to the general public and consist of research libraries and circulating libraries.

The library originated in the 19th century, and its founding and roots are the amalgamation of grass-roots libraries, social libraries of bibliophiles and the wealthy, and from philanthropy of the wealthiest Americans of their age. The NYPL has appeared in feature films. It serves as the backdrop for a central plot development in the 2002 film Spider-Man and a location in the 2004 apocalyptic science fiction film The Day After Tomorrow. In the 1978 film The Wiz, Dorothy and Toto stumble across it, one of its lions comes to life, and joins them on their journey out of Oz.

It is also featured prominently in the 1984 film Ghostbusters with three of the titular protagonists encountering the ghost of a librarian named Eleanor Twitty, who becomes violent when approached. Her origins and the library's prominent standing are explored in the video game sequel, Ghostbusters: The Video Game. In May 2010, the library invited comedy group Improv Everywhere to put on a brief performance in the main reading room based on Ghostbusters as a promotional stunt.

Most Iconic Film Moment: Ghostbusters

Other films that feature the New York Public Library include: