Importance

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Abstract

A method accesses and updates information from a library of optical discs and includes a step of cataloging optical discs. The cataloging step includes the generation of a unique value for each of the cataloged discs. The unique value is produced by iteratively reading data from each disc and iteratively combining the data. The cataloging step includes the generation of catalog data streams. The catalog data streams include fixed length data representing file and directory attributes and variable length data representing file names and directory names. The method includes the further step of producing limited depth catalogs representing file and directory information on the optical discs. The limited depth catalogs have a fixed number of subdirectory levels and file types. The fixed number is selected by a user, and the file types are selected by a user. The method includes the further step of caching optical disc data to a hard disc. The cached data are written to the hard disc when the optical disc data are requested more frequently than other optical disc data. The requests are monitored by a caching file system. The caching file system determines when the requests for data can be satisfied by cached data. The caching file system satisfies the requests by accessing and communicating requested data from the cache. The method includes the step of reconciling actual storage locations of optical discs with storage locations represented in a database. The method includes the step of manipulating physical components of an optical disc library by dragging and dropping icons displayed on a user interface, the icons being associated with the physical components. The method includes the step of displaying an hierarchical index to a user, said index representing the subordinate relationship of the components of an optical disc library. The method includes the step of recording check-out and check-in transactions and maintaining a history of such transactions.

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First Claim