INFORMATION RETRIEVAL APPARATUS FOR SEARCHING TARGET LITERATURE DATA FROM AN INFORMATION RECORDING MEDIUM, INCLUDING REUSE OF PAST RETRIEVING RESULTS

The present invention relates to an information retrieval apparatus for retrieving large quantities of the document files stored in the information recording medium by the successive matched comparison between the character string of a target and the character string in the coded document. When the retrieving result of the document file retrieved in the past is stored within the information recording medium together with the retrieving conditions and the document file is retrieved again with the same retrieving conditions, the information retrieval apparatus of the present invention makes it unnecessary to retrieve the document file itself by the reuse of the past retrieving results if the latest retrieved date and time are newer than the recording date and time of the document file so as to shorten the retrieving time.