An apparatus and method are disclosed for passing data between catalogs in a computer operating system. The apparatus includes an identifying module, a receiving module, a definition module, and an updating module. The identifying module identifies a first catalog having at least one data set to be passed to a second catalog. The receiving module receives the information from the first catalog. The information includes the location of data-specific information. The definition module utilizes the information received from the first catalog to define the second catalog. The updating module utilizes the location of the data-specific information received from the first catalog to update the information to reflect the name of the second catalog.