A code symbol reading system comprising first and second scanners. The first scanner employs a holographic scanning disc to generate an omnidirectional laser scanning pattern within a large 3-D scanning volume. The first scanner detects the location of a code symbol within the 3-D scanning volume and produces data indicative of its location therewithin. Using this location data, the second scanner produces a high density scanning pattern to aggressively scan the region in which the code symbol has been detected, and collect scan data for decode processing. By virtue of the system and method of the present invention, it is now possible to read bar code symbols located anywhere within very large volume of space, with a high degree of accuracy hitherto impossible using prior art techniques.