The ? la" (Associative Linking of Attributes) project demonstrates how a system for managing document collections in an organisational setting could be enhanced to support the information delivery process. Contemporary approaches to managing collections of documents typically lack support for flexible metadata definition, browsing and ultimately use for document retrieval. Users are forced to resort to keyword searching without knowing which keywords exist in the domain and which were used by other searchers. This work demonstrates how the usage of metadata linked into the ontological structure for tasks of supporting information retrieval, offers an advantage over the traditional full text searching techniques. The "? la" system introduces a novel approach to metadata linking by using ontological zzstructures and ZigZag linking. It makes use of a metadata network for document retrieval, introducing a "Query by association" approach. Also, browsing metadata connected in a ZigZag fashion could benefit the knowledge engineers in their first step towards building a formal organisational ontology. It is concluded that the "? la" method has the potential to be applicable towards establishing principles of the Semantic Web within a corporate environment.