1. A method of finding and presenting content items based on input received from a user in which the search query used to match content items of potential interest is formed based on matching the input with a catalog of metacontent items and information describing relationships between the metacontent items, the method comprising: providing on a local device a local collection of content items and associated metacontent, the metacontent associated with each content item describing the informational content of the corresponding content item; providing on a remote server system a remote catalog of metacontent items and information describing relationships between the metacontent items; receiving input from the user for finding at least one desired content item; forming a search query including at least one metacontent item of the catalog of metacontent items based on matching the input from the user with metacontent items of the catalog and further based on the information describing relationships between the metacontent items; determining a subset of content items of the local collection associated with metacontent that at least partially matches the search query; and presenting the subset of content items of the local collection on a display device based on at least one ranking criterion.