>We have a 3494 with 6 3590E1A and we have always let the drives decide
>when to clean. I have a script that runs every morning on the AIX box
>that has TSM on it and it creates a status report fort the Library and
>one of the lines has to do with cleaning left on the cleaning
>cartridges. When it gets below 50, I add another cartridge. been working
>fine this way since 1998.

Actually, the library spits out spent cleaning cartridges, so it could
simply be a task for the operator see that and react by inserting a new cart.
(One could also carefully recycle the barcode label, given what those suckers
cost.)

   Richard Sims