ISPF enables you to work with ISPF libraries, other partitioned data sets, and sequential data sets. This topic describes how to allocate, create, and use libraries and data sets.

ISPF also provides some facilities for working with z/OS® UNIX files and workstation files.

• For more information about working with z/OS UNIX files, see "z/OS UNIX Directory List Utility (Option 3.17)" in the z/OS ISPF User's Guide Vol II.
• For more information about working with workstation files, see "Download Data Set to Workstation Utility (Option 3.7)" in the z/OS ISPF User's Guide Vol II, and the sections on distributed editing in the "Edit (Option 2)" topic of the z/OS ISPF User's Guide Vol II and the EDIT service in the z/OS ISPF Services Guide.

An ISPF library is a cataloged partitioned data set (PDS) or a partitioned data set extended (PDSE). For more information about PDSE, see Partitioned Data Set Extended (PDSE).

The ISPF library has a three-level name consisting of a project, group, and type. An optional library member name can also be included. A member consists of programming code, data, or text.

ISPF displays library names on line 1 of a data display, such as the member list shown in Figure 1. Each library generally contains members with the same type of information.

Before you can create and use a new ISPF library or data set, you must allocate it using option A of the Data Set utility. See the topic about "Data Set Utility (Option 3.2)" in the z/OS ISPF User's Guide Vol II for instructions on allocating data sets.