Patent US 5,204,812

A method for classifying and accessing a collection of documents as a single document entity. Relationships are formed between the collection of documents in a relational manner. Each individual document relationship is assigned a document relationship classification independent of the document. The relationship classification contains sensitivity attributes in addition to specific information which relates the documents to a part of a particular set. Access to documents is based on the requester's credentials as well as a calculated relationship classification based on the sensitivity attributes.