During recent years, the growth in popularity of CD-ROMs and a mechanism for the storage and retrieval of information has been astounding. Today, there are few libraries or information centres which do not have some CD-ROMs in use. The vast capacity of the CD-ROM makes it suitable for bibliographic storage—either with or without images—, or integrated information packages, such as the Neuroscience Citation Index. This paper examines the technological characteristics of CD-ROM, reports on the use of one CD-ROM system—ADONIS—in operational use at the British Library Document Supply Centre (BLDSC), and looks towards the role which CD-ROMs will play in Library and Information Services (LIS) during the next 3 to 5 years.