AUTOMATED DATA STORAGE LIBRARY DUAL PICKER INTERFERENCE AVOIDANCE

Disclosed are an automated data storage library and a method for operating the library. The library includes two pickers arranged on a common guideway; a plurality of media storage slots arranged in a plurality of regions alongside the guideway; a plurality of read/write stations arranged in regions alongside the guideway. Commands are received for jobs to move media amongst the storage slots and the read/write stations, and a controller queues the received commands and allocates the queued commands to the pickers and in an order of jobs which will allow the pickers to independently access and move the media so as to avoid interference in the same region, or in regions which are behind the other picker. The media storage slots may be arranged in row sets and regions alongside the guideway, each row set including one or more storage slots and each region including one or more columns, with the regions narrower than the pickers. The controller queues the received commands and allocates the queued commands to the pickers and in an order of jobs so as to allow the pickers to independently access and move the media to avoid interference in the same row set in adjacent regions, in the same region, or in regions which are behind the other picker.