Tape rewinder in tape storage and retrieval library

A rewind tape drive is disclosed for a tape library for rewinding a tape upon a read/write tape drive of the library completing reading and/or writing a tape. In some instances, the tape may be positioned close to the beginning of tape at the completion of reading and/or writing. Thus, the disclosed invention may additionally, upon completion of reading and/or writing a tape, determine whether the time required for the tape drive to rewind the tape exceeds a predetermined time, and transport the tape to the rewind unit only upon exceeding the predetermined time. The predetermined time may comprise the time required for unloading the tape from the read/write tape drive to an accessor, the time required for the accessor to transport the tape to the rewind unit, and the time required to load the transported tape into the rewind unit. A predetermined algorithm may be employed to compare the time required for the tape drive to rewind a tape to the time required for the rewind unit to rewind the tape plus the unload/transport/load time.