A simple record query language (SRQL) is a generic record meta-data query solution that can natively describe the information contained in a record and search each against it to find records whose meta-data matches a particular set of criteria. SRQL includes both a record data structure that includes searchable SRQL attributes that describe the record, and queries that are able to search the attributes. The attributes are an XML node that exists in the record header itself. There are two types of queries, to wit local to find records in the local data store, and distributed to find records that may be stored in a neighbor's data store. As such, SRQL finds particular applicability to peer-to-peer networks.