IBM System i (AS/400) Libraries
Q. What are AS/400 Libraries?
A.
A library is an OS/400 object that is used to find other OS/400 objects in the database.
The library is organized as a single-level hierarchy, unlike the directory structure found on PCs which have a multilevel hierarchy.
To find an OS/400 system object you need the name of the library and the name of the object. The AS/400 identifies objects by their qualified name, which takes the form of LIBRARY/OBJECT. For example, to find the object MONEY in the library PAYROLL you would reference this as PAYROLL/MONEY.
Two or more objects can have the same name but they must be different types of objects. For example you could have a program named TEST and a data space named TEST, but not two programs named TEST.
An object can exist in only one library. A library cannot reference other libraries except for the library called QSYS. This is the only library that can access other libraries.