A technique for recalling data objects stored on media. A queue is created for each medium on which data objects are located, where each request to recall a data object is placed on the queue corresponding to the medium on which the data object is located. A queue is "active" when its corresponding medium is mounted and being used for recall; otherwise the queue is "non-active." A thread is created for each active queue, where the thread retrieves from a medium the requested items on the active queue. When plural drives are available for mounting and reading media, plural queues may be active concurrently, so that the plural queues' respective threads may recall items from the plural media in parallel. Preferably, the requests on each queue are organized in an order such that the offset locations of the requested items form two monotonically increasing sequences.