This book is the fifth in a series of annual surveys of optical storage technology, concepts, product developments and applications. It includes analyses of read-only and read/write technologies and examines new products under development or introduced during 1989. The categorization of available products is emphasized by providing an understanding of their characteristics, advantages and limitations. The overall conceptual presentation retains its utility and readers should be able to relate new products to those discussed here despite the inevitabe product developments that will take place. This report should prove invaluable to data processing administrators, computer systems analysts, records managers, information specialists, librarians, archivist and others responsible for the evaluation, planning and implementation of optical information systems for data and document storage.