Here is some miscellaneous info I thought worth mentioning...

If you have a 3494 or like robotic tape library, you will eventually end up
  with tapes showing a category code of x'FFFA' (Manually Ejected), typically
  the result of a failed tape which had to be discarded, and its identifying
  barcode with it, such that the volume number will never be used again.  This
  database entry thus lives on after the tape, and won't go away.  In going
  through the excellent new redbook "IBM Magstar 3494 Tape Libraries: A
  Practical Guide" (SG24-4632), in section 8.7 I came upon the otherwise
  undocumented method of using category code FFFB (Purge Volume) to delete the
  Library Manager database entry.  I tried it on such a defunct volume number,
  and indeed it went away.  Nice.

October 7th announcement letter 997-297 reminds us that ADSM v2r1 for AIX
  will no longer be marketed after January 7, and that support will end June 30.
  We all need to get to v.3.

The February 25th ADSM teleconference talked of new v3.1 HSM clients for SGI
  and Solaris, offhandedly saying that HSM is *already* available for AIX 4.1,
  4.2.1, and 4.3.  Well, this was news to me, as I had seen no announcement of
  HSM for AIX beyond 4.1.  The October 7th AIX 3.1 announcement made no
  mention of HSM except as a future direction; and I can find no later IBM
  announcement which talks of HSM arriving for later AIX releases; and there was
  no mention of it in ADSM-L communications, suggesting that no one saw this
  coming, given how many customers have been awaiting this HSM.  Web page
  http://www.storage.ibm.com/software/adsm/adclaix.htm says:
  "Note: We plan to make the new V3 HSM client available for download through
  this web page on March 27."  So it's imminent, but a surprise.
  If anyone knows where this was announced, I'd like to learn of it.

Richard Sims, Boston University OIT