Information presentation apparatus with meta-information management function

A web page server comprising:

• a document storage unit that stores web pages;
• a meta-information table that stores information including a status of each web page stored in said document storage unit;
• and
• management software that provides the following functions:
• monitoring modification of the web pages in said document storage unit;
• updating said meta-information table based on the monitoring function;
• and
• creating, in response to a collection request, a list of web pages in said document storage that have been modified since a previous collection request so that the collection request only retrieves previously unretrieved documents, thereby reducing the load on the web page server.

An information presentation apparatus connected to an information collection apparatus via a network, the information presentation apparatus comprising:

• a meta-information table which stores information about documents managed by the information presentation apparatus;
• and
• a meta-information management unit which generates update information about each managed document and records said update information in said meta-information table,
• wherein when the information collection apparatus requests said managed documents, said meta-information management unit references said meta-information table, and based on comparing said update information in said meta-information table with predetermined criteria specified in said request, generates a list of documents corresponding to the predetermined criteria and transmits the list to the information collection apparatus such that a number of access times to the information presentation apparatus by the information collection apparatus is reduced.

An information presentation apparatus for managing documents and for communicating with an information collection apparatus via a network, the information presentation apparatus comprising:

• a first table which stores information about the documents;
• a second table which stores a network name for the information collection apparatus;
• and
• a meta-information management unit which:
• generates update information about each document and records the update information in the first table, and
• requests the information collection apparatus to issue an information collection request where a change occurs in the information stored in the first table.