007 - Physical Description Fixed Field (Part 1)

The 007 tag is used to code data related to the physical characteristics of a work being cataloged. The data in this tag may refer to the work in its entirety, to parts of the work (including accompanying material), or to applicable additional physical characteristics.  

Elements in field 007 are identified based on their position and according to the category of material defined by the first position (00) in the field. There are lots of possible categories of materials and BF&S includes a chart that shows the various code options and the meanings of the positions in the tag based on those codes. The categories of material for which 007 coding is defined are map, electronic resource, globe, tactile material (something that is intended to be read by touch), projected graphic, microform, nonprojected graphic, motion picture, kit, notated music, remote-sensing image, sound recording, text, and videorecording.

Software will often display the 007 tag will with subfield delimiters to make the information easier for people to read. However, the actual tag is coded by position, not with subfields. Both indicators are undefined for the 007 tag.

I'm going to describe one fairly simple category of material, a globe, to give you an idea of how this tag works.

A globe is defined in BF&S as "the model of a celestial body, usually the Earth or another celestial sphere depicted on the surface of a sphere." 

• An 007 tag describing a globe begins with "d" (labeled as subfield a)
  
  
• The next position (subfield b) contains a one-character code for the specific material designation (a celestial globe, for example, is "a")
  
  
• Next (subfield d) is a code for one-color ("a") or multicolor ("c") -- subfield c is skipped over, I don't know why
  
  
• Next (subfield e) is a code for the physical material the globe is made of (paper, wood, metal, plaster, etc.)
  
  
• The final position (subfield f) contains a code indicating if the globe is a facsimile ("f"), or other kind of reproduction

Some examples:

 A globe of the Earth's moon, in multiple colors, made of metal, that is not a reproduction of any kind:

007    ǂa d ǂb e ǂd c ǂe d ǂf n    

A terrestrial globe, in a single color, made of plastic, which is not a reproduction:

007    ǂa d ǂb c ǂd c ǂe i ǂf n  

It is common to see 007 tags in records for kits where there are a variety of included items of different types and the 007 tag contains details about specific pieces of the kit. Books that are accompanied by a computer disk (these were common when I started cataloging) also use these tags.

Enjoy the holiday tomorrow and we will wrap up this series next week with another, more complex, 007 example.