Abstract: The present invention is a tape library comprising both a small front-end portion and a larger back-end portion. The front-end portion is a visible virtual or physical tape library; and the back-end portion is a large invisible virtual or physical tape vault. The DPA is a typical DPA which only sees the front-end library. If desired, all messages regarding the importing and exporting of tapes are reviewed by an agent. The agent manages the automatic transfer of tapes between the front-end and the back-end, and notifies the user when a manual import or export is needed. This greatly reduces both the amount of hardware required to establish a virtual or physical tape library and also reduces the amount of labor required by a user to physically import and export tapes. If both the front-end library and the back-end vault are virtual and reside on the same virtual tape library appliance, no data movement is necessary and the tapes can be moved merely by performing small software state changes.