I'm not sure that I completely understand you, except that I agree that there is only one iPhoto library. I never thought differently. Now, then, here's what I have:
A. LIBRARY: Events, Photos, Faces, Places
B. RECENT: TueSept 11,12; Last 12 months; Last import, Flagged, Printing, Trash
C. ALBUMS: Annette, Sheet music, Records, Untitled album
D. SLIDESHOWS: Many
In "Last 12 months," I had thought that all of my iPhoto files were there. What "Events" is supposed to include, I don't know, but it looks like it has most of my photos/files. In my "Annette" file, I have everything about her that I have: pictures of her, sheet music with her name, newspaper articles, pictures of her phonograph records, etc.
In my "sheet music" file, I have sheet music covers with her picture or name, In "Records" I have pictures of records that she recorded. These are what I call my "single-purpose"files, a special file for sheet music covers with her name or picture, etc. I guess that's what you call "albums".
You say that there are no files in iPhoto. I can acept that. I had been calling graphs, or written material, etc. files, but I can see why you call them photos. That's okay with me.
I think the key question is this: Does the "Events" file include all of the photos in my iPhoto library? If so, my problems are over.