1. A method of associating a first element, a second element and meta-data related to the first element, wherein the first element is a protected element and is within a first protected resource, the second element is a protected element and the meta-data is within a relationship resource, the first and second elements being bound to first and second index elements, respectively, the method comprising: identifying the relationship resource in response to a request for the meta-data related to the first element; sending a message to the relationship resource for return of the meta-data; locating the meta-data in response to the message; and sending the located meta-data to the first protected resource, wherein the first protected resource and the relationship resource are in a distributed arrangement, and the relationship resource indicates a relationship between the first element, the second element, and the meta-data, wherein a requestor sends to the first protected resource the request for the meta-data related to the first element, and the meta-data is returned to the requestor only if the requestor is authorized to access the first element.