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The Resource Description Framework - RDF is a data model that represents and describes resources aiming to interoperability and access to information in digital environments. In this paper, we present the RDF data model, its origins and its main features. Since this is a theoretical and exploratory research with a descriptive purpose, we used literature review as a methodology for our bibliographical investigation. It was possible to demonstrate the importance of RDF for description of any resources, whether they are digital or not, bibliographic or not. Furthermore, RDF provides for resource description communities the opportunity to define the semantics of their metadata in a formal way, i.e., to determine the meaning of the metadata elements according to their specific needs for description, and in a way readable by machines. Using the Extensible Markup Language - XML syntax for metadata exchange and processing, RDF contributes positively to interoperability between different information and description systems, thus contributing to the construction of integrated search engines that will enable specialized services to its users. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]