(:
    Find the very first author in the document, using LET.
    Over bibliography.xml.
    parke godfrey 2013-11-05

    Same as before, but we use a LET clause here.  LET allows one to assign
    a variable a single node or value.

:)

<authors>
{
    let $first := (doc("bibliography.xml")//author)[1]
    return <first>{data($first)}</first>
}
</authors>