A global information management system (GIMS) includes a collection of standards and methods that allow information management on a global scale. A GIMS computer network includes a central registration database (CRD) and one or more GIMS computer systems connected over a network. Each GIMS computer system includes a relational database having a set of standardized tables. The CRD may provide a GIMS network-unique system ID to each GIMS computer system. Each GIMS computer system uses the GIMS network-unique system ID as part of a primary key for each record generated by and stored in the set of standardized tables of the GIMS database. The GIMS enables global database normalization through the globally unique identification of database records.