Patent ID: 7305399

Claim:
A method of accessing information within a directory tree structure comprising the steps of: a. formatting a searchable database into the directory tree structure, wherein the directory tree structure includes nodes comprising a collection of related data and branches comprising links between the nodes, further wherein each specific node provides a corresponding set of parameters by which each related item of data corresponding to the specific node is defined by setting each parameter with a corresponding value associated with the data item, thereby forming a set parameter; b. accessing a particular node within the directory tree structure utilizing a research module including keyword search, hierarchical search, and dichotomous key search, wherein when accessing each of the nodes within the directory tree structure utilizing the research module, each of the keyword search, hierarchical search, and dichotomous key search, are available at any location, including at any displayed page, within the searchable database, wherein the keyword search, the hierarchical search and the dichotomous key search are available at any displayed page within the searchable database without requiring user input; c. setting one or more search parameters corresponding to the set of parameters of the particular node; and d. performing a parametric search from any node within the directory tree structure using the one or more set search parameters corresponding to the particular node to match the one or more search parameters to the set parameters for each item of data corresponding to the particular node, thereby generating one or more matching discrete data items.