Methods and systems consistent with the present invention track assets by collecting information from assets. Information for tracking assets is collected based on a query. The person creating the query specifies a lifetime, a scope, and one or more parameters for collecting the information. The lifetime indicates a period of time for maintaining the results of the query in storage. When the lifetime expires, the results of the query are removed from the storage. When a query is created, a server updates a query index and creates temporary storage space for the query's results. Periodically, the client polls the server and accesses the query index to determine whether any queries are pending for that client. The client collects the information from the appropriate assets and provides the results to the server. The server then stores the results in the temporary storage space.