Abstract: A system and method for searching, accessing updating database records on a plurality of geographically dispersed databases is provided. Update databases consisting of a plurality of update records having at least one field capable of being set to at least one particular value are used to update records in target databases. When a database search is conducted on one or more target databases, a search is also conducted on update databases associated with the target databases. The results of the searches are processed. If the at least one field in an update record is set to a predefined value, then all returned records equivalent to the update record are discarded. Otherwise, the update record is added to the search result.

Abstract: A search-routing database is used to direct database search requests to only those databases that may contain results to the search request. The search-routing database contains a subset of the data fields from the other databases in the network, along with a field indicating the database to which the search request should be routed. When a database search request is received, a modified search request is generated based on the overlap between the type of information contained in the search request and the type of information contained in the data-fields of the search routing database. This modified search request is submitted to the search-routing database, which returns a list of database candidates which could produce results to the original search request. The original search request is then submitted to those database candidates, and the results are returned to the user.

Abstract: A search-routing database is used to direct database search requests to only those databases that may contain results to the search request. The search-routing database contains a subset of the data fields from the other databases in the network, along with a field indicating the database to which the search request should be routed. When a database search request is received, a modified search request is generated based on the overlap between the type of information contained in the search request and the type of information contained in the data-fields of the search routing database. This modified search request is submitted to the search-routing database, which returns a list of database candidates which could produce results to the original search request. The original search request is then submitted to those database candidates, and the results are returned to the user.