Recording medium cartridge recording/reproducing apparatus using a recording medium cartridge and information management system

摘要

A recording medium cartridge has a bar code label provided on the outer surface of its case so that the bar code of the bar code label indicates identification information associated the with recording medium disposed in the case. A memory circuit is provided inside the case so that identification information identical to the information indicated by the bar code label may be stored in the memory circuit. A recording/reproducing apparatus includes a bar code reader for reading the bar code of the bar code label, and a memory reader for reading the identification information stored in the memory circuit. Either the identification information read by the bar code reader or the identification information read by the memory reader is employed as the identification information associated with the recording medium cartridge. If the bar code cannot be read for some reason such as degradation of the bar code label, the identification information read from the memory circuit is employed as the identification information associated with the recording medium cartridge. This ensures that the identification information can be managed in a highly reliable fashion.