There were several important goals that guided the development of XOBIS.
First, we wanted to create modular data structures that were simple in their design, or at least as simple as they could be given the complexity of library information.
The second was that we wanted to emphasize access over description; doing this requires that we explicitly recognize and catalog the relationships between our discreet modular structures.
The third was that we wanted to create crisp entries that could be reused consistently in a variety of contexts.
The fourth was that we wanted to create a self-referencing system so that the database could be used to control the validity of cataloging data. This is in contrast to the current method of relying on external code and "acceptable values" lists.