DATA STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL

摘要

A data repository stores data items with associated metadata values (21, 22 27), together with associated relatedness values (212, 217, 227) etc, defined between each pair of metadata values. In order to retrieve data, a "most relevant" metadata value (21) is identified and data items associated with that metadata value are retrieved first. Other data items are ranked according to the relatedness value (217) of their associated metadata value (27) to the selected metadata value (21).