"Finally, we have some positive news to report," said Santa Clara County librarian Melinda Cervantes. "We'll still see cuts, but they'll be far less significant than we originally thought." The county's Cupertino branch is one of the eight libraries that will be affected.

Cervantes said that as a result of the lobbying efforts of groups like the California Libraries Association and the California Special Districts Association, there's a good chance that local libraries will be getting an exemption to the so-called property-tax shift. This will mean that the Santa Clara County Library system will be able to keep millions of dollars in property-tax monies originally slated to go to Sacramento.

Cervantes said nobody could be 100 percent certain that the libraries will indeed get the exemption until California actually passes its fiscal-year budget, but she's "cautiously optimistic" that the exemption will stick.

Because of this news, the Cupertino library is in a bit of limbo until the final word comes down. Keeping cuts as small as possible is always preferable, but with a new library building opening in the fall, the Cupertino branch could use as much money as possible.

"We're hoping against hope that this will go through," said Mary-Ann Wallace, the community librarian for Cupertino. "We want to be open as many hours as possible."

Due to city budget cuts, however, the Cupertino library will be closed on Sundays starting July 1. That funding had been supplied by Cupertino's budget, but with its own fiscal issues, the city has had to cut that service.

With regard to the library's schedule, Wallace said that's the only thing she and her staff know for sure.

This summer, they'll start to put together a preliminary schedule with the cuts in mind and plan to ask for the public's assistance. Meanwhile, Wallace says she'll hope for the shift to go through.

But even with the latest development, the county library system still faces significant challenges, Cervantes said.

In addition to cutting hours, she said, the system will maintain a hiring freeze, hoping to reduce personnel costs through attrition. The library system anticipates more than 14 people countywide will retire this year.

Also, beginning July 1, libraries will charge new fees for various services. Fines on most materials, for example, are now 25 cents per item per day, but a new fine of $1 per item per day will be charged for videos and DVDs. Fees for holds will also be affected. The first three holds put on a patron's card will be free, but a $1 fee will be charged for any additional requests. Moreover, patrons will be limited to 10 holds per card.

Wallace also said the cuts could affect the library's books and materials budget. The county was anticipating cuts of $750,000 in that area, which would have meant 35,000 fewer assets like educational resources, best sellers, DVDs and Books on Tape.

The Santa Clara County Library system, which garnered national recognition for its extremely well-run libraries through its large collection of materials and long operating hours, was hard hit by the increased shifting of local dollars to the state that began in the early 1990s, Cervantes said.

The passage of Measure A in 1994 helped to alleviate some of the library system's financial problems through parcel taxes on residential and nonresidential property owners in the county.

Funding from Measure A has accounted for approximately 21 percent of library funding sources.

However, that measure is set to expire in June 2005.

The Joint Powers Authority Board of Santa Clara County had hoped for a two-thirds voter approval in the March 2004 election for Measure B, which would have extended the parcel tax, but the measure failed.

The latest development may "have stopped the bleeding" for now, Cervantes said, but because Measure A will expire next year, the library system is still facing a funding crisis next July.

"We're not out of the woods yet," she said.

Staff writer Allison Rost contributed to this article.