Abstract: The directory service of the present invention extends the mechanism used to define ordinary properties to define "links," pairs of properties that represent an interobject reference with a certain meaning. Each pair is given a unique "pair ID" and consists of a "link" property and a "backlink" property, which represent the "reference" and "is referenced by" semantics, respectively. Rather than storing interobject references with the referencing and/or the referenced objects themselves and imputing the link, instead the present invention stores the link instance itself as an unnamed object in a link database table, which is separate and distinct from the data information base, and imputes the values to be reported for the relevant properties on the referencing and referenced objects from the existence of records in the link table.