007 Physical Description Fixed Field (R) (Variable Control Field)
Field definition and scope:
Field 007 contains special information about the physical characteristics of an item expressed in a coded form. The information may represent the whole item or parts of an item such as accompanying material. The coded information is usually derived from explicit information in other fields of the record, especially from field 300 (Physical Description) and/or one of the 5XX Note Fields .
Values given in 007/00 (Category of material) determine the data elements defined for subsequent character positions.
National-level and Minimal-level record requirements for field 007 for all types of material are Optional. Requirements for specific 007 categories of material and their character positions vary. See the character position description within the specific category of material.
Field 007 is repeatable to allow for coding different physical formats covered by the same cataloging record. For example, a record which describes a videocassette available in Beta and VHS formats will have two separate 007 fields.
Guidelines for applying content designation:
This field has no indicators or subfield codes . The data elements in field 007 are positionally defined; the number of character positions in field 007 and the definition of each depend upon the code contained in 007/00 (Category of material) .
All defined character positions must contain either a defined code or a fill character . The fill character is used when the cataloging organization makes no attempt to code the character position. (Field 007 for motion pictures is the only instance where the length of the field may vary.)
For records that meet National-level requirements, the fill character may be used in a defined character position only when the National Level Requirement is O (Optional). Code n (Not applicable), when it is defined for a data element, indicates that the character position definition does not apply to the record. Code u (Unknown), when it is defined for a data element, indicates that the position definition does apply to the record, but that information needed to code the position correctly is unknown.
For more information on the character positions, select a topic:
007/01-->: Character Positions by Category of Material
007: Composite Listing by Character Position
A How-To on 007 and the Different Types of Material
Coding and Repeatability Changes in Field 007
See also:
