27. A method for searching and retrieving information about objects of an arbitrary application domain in the system for storage and retrieval of a plurality of information objects according to claim 1 , comprising the steps of: a) generating a search mask comprising information relevant to the information to be retrieved from said system, and said search mask being an information object (IO) with a tree structure similar to the tree structure of information objects stored in said system, b) generating based on said search mask an active query object (AQO) comprising search criteria, c) comparing the AQO with IOs embedded in a each of the plurality of active units of storage on the logical storage network of said system, wherein moving from AUS to AUS following existing logical connections between them is performed in the direction of decreasing metric distance between the information objects incorporated into AUS, and d) retrieving an IO meeting the search criteria specified in the AQO.
27. A method for searching and retrieving information about objects of an arbitrary application domain in the system for storage and retrieval of a plurality of information objects according to claim 1 , comprising the steps of: a) generating a search mask comprising information relevant to the information to be retrieved from said system, and said search mask being an information object (IO) with a tree structure similar to the tree structure of information objects stored in said system, b) generating based on said search mask an active query object (AQO) comprising search criteria, c) comparing the AQO with IOs embedded in a each of the plurality of active units of storage on the logical storage network of said system, wherein moving from AUS to AUS following existing logical connections between them is performed in the direction of decreasing metric distance between the information objects incorporated into AUS, and d) retrieving an IO meeting the search criteria specified in the AQO. 35. The method according to claim 27 , wherein the search mask is generated using the same notations as those used in information objects stored in the repository; wherein each node in the structure of sought information objects is paired with a node in the structure of the search mask; the data value contained in a node of the mask is a partial search criterion for IO; combination of all partial search criteria provides a complete criterion for mask search of information objects.