1. A method for accessing information from XML documents, the method comprising: identifying, within the XML documents, a set of nodes to be indexed; for each node in the set of nodes to be indexed, storing, in an index, an entry for the node, wherein the entry for a given node includes location data for locating XML content associated with the given node, and at least one of: (a) hierarchical data that indicates a hierarchical position of the given node within the XML document that contains the given node; and (b) path data that corresponds to a path, through the structure of the XML document that contains the given node, to the given node; and using the index to locate information within the XML documents in response to requests for information from the XML documents.