In a content management system having a plurality of resource managers storing objects, a replica resource manager stores a replica of an object stored in one of the plurality of resource managers. A library server contains a resource manager table that defines the plurality of resource managers and includes availability information for each of those resource managers. When a client requests an object, the library server identifies a primary resource manager storing the object. The library server also determines a replica resource manager storing a replica of the object and returns information identifying that replica resource manager if the resource manager table indicates that the primary resource manager is unavailable and indicates that the replica resource manager is online and available. The client then retrieves the replica object without incurring a timeout delay waiting for the primary resource manager to respond to an access request.