Book excerpt: This comprehensive collection is a survey of research in object-oriented databases, offering a substantive overview of the field, section introductions, and over 40 research papers presented in their original scope and detail. The balanced selection of articles presents a confluence of ideas from both the language and database research communities that have contributed to the object-oriented paradigm. The editors develop a general definition and model for object-oriented databases and relate significant research efforts to this framework. Further, the collection explores the fundamental notions behind object-oriented databases, semantic data models, implementation of object-oriented systems, transaction processing, interfaces, and related approaches. Research and theory are balanced by applications to CAD systems, programming environments, and office information systems.