1. A method for querying and returning instances of items comprising: receiving from an application that operates in user space of an operating system, a request identifying an item, said item having a scope that includes at least one additional item, the operating system including a database management program that encapsulates a file system, the database management program encapsulating the file system by exclusively handling file system access requests from a group of user mode applications, the group of user mode applications being configured to interface with an operating system application program interface, the operating system application program interface being configured to send read/write requests issued by the group of user mode applications to the database management program of the operating system, the database management program of the operating system being configured to open files stored in the file system in response to receipt of read/write requests; generating, by the database management program that encapsulates the file system, a search object, the search object providing a method for querying the database management program; executing, by the database management program that encapsulates the file system, a query on said search object, the query utilizing the scope of the identified item as a parameter; identifying an item in the database management program that includes data that satisfies the query; de-serialize data stored in a file into an item, the file stored in the file system, the file describing the item; and returning the item to the application.