The Irish county of Fingal, outside Dublin, once had enough money—$5 million—to renovate an old church into a new library complete with 20,000 books 3,000 audio-visual items, and a chorus of architectural praise. But the financial meltdown hit Ireland hard, and a civil service hiring freeze means the new library in the town of Rush stands shuttered for lack of eight librarians to run it. Locals are not impressed. James Reilly said the situation was a prime example of a “penny-wise, pound-foolish” central government. Now, not when better times come, is when his town needs it: “We have such high unemployment. People could use the resources of the library for job hunting and building CVs.” Not to mention those eight librarian jobs.