Effective Oct. 11, library users will find the branch only open Tuesdays through Saturdays.

The closure comes in the wake of a $1.1 million budget shortfall for the Santa Clara County library system in the current fiscal year. The Joint Powers Authority that oversees the system voted to close all county libraries on Mondays to make up for the shortfall.

This leaves 12-year-old Carmen, who regularly uses the Campbell Library's Internet service, without convenient access to the web one school day each week.

"I guess I'll have to go home now, but I don't have a computer," she said.

Campbell Public Library supervisor Terri Lehan said many people who don't have computers at home come to the library to use the Internet. The closure will affect them as well as groups such as the Beekeepers and the County Woman's Club, which regularly use the library's community room on Mondays.

Although one or two librarians will be on hand to oversee the book drop on Sundays and Mondays, staffing hours will also be cut. Basically, Lehan said, "I'll be working Tuesday through Saturday. There's a hiring freeze now."

According to JPA chairman Richard Lowenthal, 46 library staff positions will be left unfilled throughout the county.

And the county's woes are not over yet. County libraries are due to take another funding hit if a $33 annual benefits assessment tax expires as scheduled in June 2005. If this assessment isn't renewed, the JPA estimates a loss of $5.3 million in the next fiscal year.

"Our materials budget will be drastically reduced," Lehan said. "We'll lose more staff."

The JPA is considering asking voters to renew the assessment next June in what would be a special election. The last such ballot measure barely missed the two-thirds vote required to pass.

"I don't think people really understood that the loss of the measure meant the loss of so much funding," Lehan said. "I think people took it for granted that it would pass."

To increase public understanding of the issue, the JPA is trying to raise $200,000­$400,000 before the end of the year to fund a campaign around the ballot measure.

"Last time we ran this campaign, we were really short of funding," Lowenthal said. "That was a big factor in [the measure] not passing."

Lowenthal said the Monday closure may actually help raise awareness of the library system's financial woes.

"I think people have expected services to continue whether these measures pass or not," he added. "We can't offer the same level of service anymore, and I think people will feel the pinch when libraries close on Mondays. I think this will at least help people draw the connection between voting on the measure and getting something for their money."

Yet Campbell resident Anne Sanderfer, who comes into the library about once a month with her three children, is uncertain whether she'll vote for the measure, especially if there's a school bond measure on the same ballot.

"It'd be a tossup," she said.