In addition to internal disk drives accessing the optical disk cartridges stored inside the library (library-resident), an operator-accessible optical disk drive is provided for users who need to read, write, or delete from an optical disk without storing or retrieving it from the library. When WORM optical media is used, the data is logically deleted from the optical disks. When rewritable optical media is used, the data is physically as well as logically deleted from the optical disks.

The operator-accessible drive cannot be accessed by the library’s internal cartridge transport mechanism, and the operator-accessible drive does not have access to the optical disk volumes which are stored inside of the library. Operator-accessible drives are used to access shelf-resident optical disks. A human operator mounts and demounts the shelf-resident optical disk cartridges for the operator-accessible optical disk drives.