Patent ID: 6941291

Claim:
A method of providing access to information comprising the steps of: a) a repository receiving a call from an application program, said call specifying a user identifier and a requested logical collection of information of a plurality of logical collections of information; b) in response to said call, said repository determining locations having portions of said requested logical collection of information corresponding to said user identifier by: b1) determining a plurality of fields associated with said requested logical collection of information, wherein said fields describe information distributed over a plurality of databases; and b2) accessing a stored mapping of said fields to said databases, said mapping stored on said repository; c) using said user identifier and said stored mapping, said repository retrieving information corresponding to a first of said plurality of fields from a first of said plurality of databases; d) using said user identifier and said stored mapping, said repository retrieving information corresponding to a second of said plurality of fields from a second of said plurality of databases, wherein said first and second database store information in a different format from one another; e) said repository providing said requested logical collection of information to said application program, retrieved from said first and second databases; and f) said repository storing in a cache said requested logical collection of information which was requested by said application program.