Seems like my problem has not gone away.  Here is the error message I get
when I issue a delete vol.
ANS8001I Return code 14    on the command line

ANR2017I Administrator PALMADJ issued command: DELETE VOLUME p50008
discarddata=yes
ANR1425W Scratch volume P50008 is empty but will not be deleted - volume
state
is "mountablenotinlib".

Here is a q vol of that volume:

adsm> q vol p50008 f=d

                   Volume Name: P50008
             Storage Pool Name: FOS-XCH-TAPE
             Device Class Name: 3590
       Estimated Capacity (MB): 0.0
                      Pct Util: 0.0
                 Volume Status: Empty
                        Access: Read/Write
        Pct. Reclaimable Space: 0.0
               Scratch Volume?: Yes
               In Error State?: No
      Number of Writable Sides: 1
       Number of Times Mounted: 48
             Write Pass Number: 2
     Approx. Date Last Written: 11/02/2000 22:31:20
        Approx. Date Last Read: 06/05/2000 19:59:26
           Date Became Pending:
        Number of Write Errors: 0
         Number of Read Errors: 0
               Volume Location: PAL Tape Rack
Last Update by (administrator): PALMADJ
         Last Update Date/Time: 11/07/2000 11:35:29

Here is a q con:
adsm> q con p50008
ANR2034E QUERY CONTENT: No match found using this criteria.
ANS8001I Return code 11.

ADSM Server is rs6k  ADSM 3.1.55

Thanks for any help
Jack