In prior support when new devices were introduced, there were read-compatibility considerations that required the customer to indicate on a volume or job basis that the request for a volume was for read-only purposes. This enabled a higher technology device that was downward read-compatible to be considered eligible for the request. This was particularly important if a customer had upgraded all of the drives in the library to the new recording technology and was a way to indicate that the volume was going to be used for read-only purposes. Since the 3592 Model E05 is both downward read and write compatible, explicit specification of the read-compatible special attribute indicator (TDSSPEC) or usage of the LABEL=(,,,IN) on the DD statement of JCL will not be required for the EFMT1 recording format.