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Structure of Event Principal Element

4.In Any Event…(Episodic Records)

Event

Named macro-events, naturally-occurring or conducted by individuals or organizations

<Event type="meeting">
    <Entry class="collective">
       <Name>Workshop on Discrete Event Systems</Name>
       <Qualifiers>
           <String>
               <Name>5th</Name>
           </String>
           <Time>
               <Year>2000</Year>
           </Time>
           <Place id="375">
               <Name>Ghent</Name>
               <Qualifiers>
                   <Place id="3876">
                       <Name>Belgium</Name>
                   </Place>
               </Qualifiers>
           </Place>
       </Qualifiers>
    </Entry>
</Event>

Event includes all sorts of named happenings or occurrences, deliberate or not. This expands upon meeting name (MARC x11) and also includes natural phenomena (perhaps defined as lacking deliberate human involvement/causation), all of which LC generally treats as subjects.The emphasis is on the event itself with organizational involvements treated as relationships. It excludes micro-events and named processes, etc. which are generally categorical, rather than referring to one specific occurrence.Specific events may be subordinate to an umbrella Episodic Record, allowing economy of cross-referencing and hierarchical displays as discussed in the Organization section.

• International Conference on World Peace
• 13th : 1983 : Taipei, Taiwan
• 14th : 1984 : Baguio, Philippines

Unnamed macro-events would usually be covered by a categorical relationship to a Concept, e.g. Voyages Around the World.However, some well-known historical events lack precise names/entries or they lack a consistent proper name.Not surprisingly, some are difficult to locate in catalogs. If an Event is frequently referenced, famous, or otherwise desirable as an entry, concocted event names with ample variants are worth considering:

• Circumnavigation of Earth (1519-1522 : Magellan)
• Circumnavigation of Earth (1577-1580 : Drake)
• Circumnavigation of Earth (1768-1771 : Cook)
• Circumnavigation of Earth (1895-1898 : Slocum)

• San Francisco Earthquake (1906)
• Loma Prieta Earthquake (1989)
• Variant: San Francisco Earthquake (1989)

Event has an optional 'type' attribute with tentative values: natural, meeting, journey, occurrence, or miscellaneous. Its Entry may have an optional 'class' attribute with values:individual, collective, or referential. Attributes for 'scheme', 'language', and 'transliteration' are also optional, as well as 'type' with the sole value of generic. The Entry consists of a Name and optional Qualifiers.While events are typically collective, individual is offered in reference to solo performances and for single natural occurrences. The referential value serves informational records with indirect associations to actual events, as in this generic case:

• Annual Meeting …
• Related: Biennial Meeting …
• Related: Meeting …
• Related: Semi-Annual Meeting …

Event is broadly interpreted to include natural events such as astronomical, geological, meteorological, public health, etc. ones. The scope extends to all manner of convened endeavors, such as conventions, expeditions, fairs, festivals, launches, meetings, parades, parties, trials, voyages, etc. as well as other occurrences besetting society, e.g. accidents, battles, disputes, massacres, wars, etc. Entries for events benefit from qualification by place and time.If properly named, their duration may be lengthy.

The following examples include potential categorical Relationships in the right column. Some other selected relationships and Varia are indicated to help illustrate delineations and potential referencing. Some cases are discussed following the examples.

These examples depart markedly in some instances from those of LC's practice of pre-coordination sampled below.Each example is juxtaposed with comparable XOBIS Principal Elements to illustrate the irregularity and resultant scattering of events.Some of these may represent earlier cataloging rules. Consult the Relationships section for further implications.

• Event, Place, Place, Time.
• Watts Riot, Los Angeles, Calif., 1965.

• Event (Time : Place, Place)
• Seminar on Hospitalization of Children (1963 : Paris, France).

• Place inverted (Place) -- Event, Time
• Saint Helens, Mount (Wash.) -- Eruption, 1980
• Vesuvius (Italy) -- Eruption, 1944.

• Event, Place, Place, Time
• Tay Bridge Disaster, Dundee, Scotland, 1879

• Event, inverted, Place, Time
• Antietam, Battle of, Md., 1862

• Place -- Concept --Event embedded Time
• United States -- History -- War of 1812.
• Greece -- History -- Peloponnesian War, 431-404 B.C.

• Event, Time
• Jacquerie, 1358

• Organization. Event (Time : Place, Place)
• British Society for Cell Biology. Symposium (1986 : Norwich, England)

Each of the Principal Elements has its own set of issues. The most difficult one with Event relates to generic names of meeting sequences that incorporate an Organization's name. Such names may vary considerably, with the variants tending to relate to a program committee's valiant attempt to thematically publicize the meeting and/or to varying editors making reference to the names in proceedings of the meetings. However, the names tend to hover around a single identity.Usually, the variations are recorded intermittently or omitted. Over time variations and varying references accumulate. If recorded comprehensively for individual meetings, indexes would become hopelessly cluttered. To make matters worse, too often these names blur the distinction between the Organization and the Event. "Are you going to MLA?" rarely refers to headquarters, but implies the annual meeting (and relies on topical context to boot). Consider a few of the possible variants that ignore capitalization and differing combinations by year:

• Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association
• Annual Meeting - Medical Library Association
• Annual Meeting MLA
• Centennial MLA Meeting
• MLA '02
• MLA Annual Meeting
• Medical Library Association Annual Meeting
• Medical Library Association's … Annual Meeting

Reliance on such arbitrary usage may be counter-productive in establishing entries. Greater homogeneity of something akin to latest entry cataloging would better serve users.XOBIS avoids blurring the crisp ideas of Event and Organization. Its structure is such that literal text can be recorded as needed (cf. Description in the Generic Elements section).This can be done on an umbrella record, shown first below, and used for leveraging display flexibility and simplifying Relationships. Only in selected cases would it be necessary to provide authorities for the constituent meetings, perhaps in the case of an occasional distinct name.The following illustrates a generic collective authority record for an Event record, followed by the Entry that would appear as an episodic relationship on a Work.

• Event (Organization)
• Annual Meeting (Medical Library Association)
• Sponsor: Medical Library Association Relationship: Organization

• Event (Organization) ([String] : Time : Place, Place)
• Annual Meeting (Medical Library Association) (2002 : Dallas, Texas)

Such "formal" entries would require rule modification.Punctuation is for illustration only.More investigation is needed.

Language issues also apply to Event. The German and Italian names of this festival appear on a pair of posters. An English translation might be supplied in an English-language catalog and designated the Entry for the event; an Italian or German catalog could prefer those languages instead. Note the linguistic integrity of each Entry. A discussion of how this may be addressed in a later version of XOBIS is included in the Language section.

• Music Week in Memory of Gustav Mahler (1984 : Dobbiaco, Italy) [Translated:]
• Settimana Musicale in Memoria di Gustav Mahler (1984 : Dobbiaco, Italia)
• Musikwoche in Memoriam Gustav Mahler (1984 : Toblach, Italien)

See the Time section next for discussion of special days, years, etc., specific instances of which may constitute Events.