INFORMATION RETRIEVAL SYSTEM FOR PRESENTING INFORMATION OBTAINED THROUGH EFFICIENT RETRIEVAL OF A DATA BASE AND PROCESSING OF THE RETRIEVAL RESULTS

An information retrieval system for presenting information by processing retrieval results obtained through data retrieval by access to data bases dispersed on a network, comprises a retrieval executing section to, upon receipt of an access request from a user, retrieve data from the data base after specifying a data base as a retrieved party and, in case of specifying a plurality of data bases as the retrieved party, retrieve data in parallel from the plurality of data bases, a retrieval result processing section to process retrieval results obtained through retrieval processing by the retrieval executing section and convert the same in a standard format, and a retrieval result supplying section to supply the retrieval results processed by the retrieval result processing section to a display.