A record carrier (40) of a removable type has an information plane of a layer of magnetic material on a substrate constituting an array of bit locations (11). A magnetic state of the material represents the value of each bit location. A storage device (35) has an interface surface (32) for cooperating with the information plane. The interface surface has an array (31) of electro-magnetic elements that are sensitive to said magnetic state of the electro-magnetic material. The record carrier and device have alignment elements (38, 41) for positioning the bit locations near the electro-magnetic elements within a near-field working distance between a bit location and the corresponding electro-magnetic element when the record carrier is mounted in the device.