XOBIS records, like the records of almost every other library schema available, are grouped in a container element. In XOBIS, this container is called a RecordList.
RecordLists, like most other record-level containers may, contain one or more single Record elements. These records have a tripartite structure.
The first part of that structure is the record's ControlData. Unlike the MARC leader and control fields, there are no data elements within ControlData that describe the thing for which the record is a surrogate. Only things like record ID, source of the record's cataloging, and the last time the record was updated are included in the ControlData section.
The second part of the Record structure is the principal element. Each record contains only one principal element. The principal element is the core component of a XOBIS record.
The last component of a XOBIS record is the record's relationships. These are relationships between the principal element of the current record and a principal element of another record. Many of the descriptive components of a MARC record are treated by XOBIS as relationships.
For example, the publisher of a Work is represented by a Work to Organization relationship. The name of the relationship is "Publisher".
The first thing that may occur to some of you is that by structuring the record in this way, XOBIS introduces the possibility of and, really, the necessity for, relationship authorities. These are represented in XOBIS as Concept records.