METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING THEMES ASSOCIATED WITH A SEARCH QUERY USING METADATA AND FOR ORGANIZING DOCUMENTS RESPONSIVE TO THE SEARCH QUERY IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE THEMES

A method of identifying at least one query theme associated with a search query, wherein the query theme corresponds to a subject, person or place associated with the search query. A document record archive has a plurality of document records each of which is associated with a stored document. Each of the document records has a plurality of metadata fields each of which stores a numerical score representing a degree of correlation between the stored document associated with the document record and a document theme, wherein the document theme corresponds to a subject, person or place associated with the stored document. A results list is retrieved in response to the search query, the results list is formed of document records each of which is associated with the search query. A composite theme score is determined for each document theme represented by the metadata fields in the document records in the results list. Each of the plurality of composite theme scores is compared to a threshold. Each composite theme score that exceeds the threshold is identified as a major theme score, and the document theme associated with the major theme score is selected as a query theme associated with the search query.