Information management systems and methods

An information management system comprises a data comparison module, a local data storage, a remote data storage, a user interface for requesting information, optionally a communications module and optionally a criterion analyser to analyse one or more criteria and thereby enable creation of one or more suitable templates wherein: the data comparison module enables re-finement of information queries without the need to undertake one or more of rebuilding, re-categorizing or re-indexing the information; the communications module facilitates communication between participants in the system; one or more methodologies may be used to access the information depending on the context; and transfer of information between the remote data storage and local data storage is proactively managed according to one or more criteria.