RDF schemas specify various metadata ontologies where FRBR is used as an "umbrella" for other types of metadata. Different types of metadata are represented by means of RDF statements. This approach makes it possible to handle different types of materials and metadata within a common framework. Searches are performed against attributes and relations represented by the RDF statements. The RDF schema with abstract relationships between metadata relation types etc. is utilized to guide automatic inference as part of more advanced search processing.