The object-oriented paradigm is getting more and more used, and many companies are making an expensive shift to object technology. Most applications, however, require a persistent storage medium like a database. The aim of the symposium is to bring together researchers and practitioners interested in the combination and collaboration of objects and databases.

Different directions can be devised to combine objects and databases, including object-oriented database systems, persistent object systems, object-relational database systems, object gateways to relational databases. All the aspects of object databases, ranging from data modeling to implementation issues, from research proposals to practical evaluations of systems fall within the interest of the symposium.

The aim of the symposium is twofold: to discuss the research going on in the object database field and to critically evaluate current solutions in terms of their current usage, their successes and limitations, and their potential for new applications. The symposium will consist of a number of presentations of reviewed papers and of discussions on all the mentioned topics.