Linux-based Solution for Massive Tape Library?

Charlie Zender asks: "The Earth System Science department at the University of California at Irvine is proposing to buy a 5--50 Tb DLT tape archive system to manage satellite and model-generated data. This will allow us to integrate the data we need for studies of climate and climate change. We all use Linux, and are wondering if there is a Linux-based solution? Vendors like StorageTek charge ~$250k for a solution based on their proprietary hardware and software. It seems like a Linux consulting company could beat this price and still make a nice profit. The software must make the tape library accessible as "near-line" storage and make transferring the tape to the disk transparent to the user. "