VIRTUAL ROBOT FOR A MULTIMEDIA AUTOMATED CARTRIDGE LIBRRARY SYSTEM

摘要

2095833 9209959 PCTABS00013 The automated library system (100) stores and retrieves media cartridges (1202) for an associated plurality of media drives (211-214). Within this system, a virtual robot is implemented to create multiple virtual media libraries within the single automated cartridge library system (100). This capability enables the use of a plurality of types of media within the single automated cartridge library (100) and a corresponding plurality of drive elements (211-214) within the library (100). Thus, each drive element (211-214) has associated therewith a number of object storage locations (201, 202) within the library (100) which contain media of a form and content that matches the drive element (211-214). The automated cartridge library system (100) manages the correspondence between object storage location (201, 202), media type, designated drive element (211-214) in an automated manner such that the single library (100) appears to the user as multiple independent libraries.