The peculiarities of optical recording in the films of azo dye containing amorphous and liquid-crystalline polymers have been studied experimentally and theoretically. A simplified theoretical model of light induced processes in the azocontaining media has been elaborated. The model considers interaction of linearly-polarized light with a thin polymer layer. We derived analytical expressions for the light-induced refractive index and the absorption coefficient. Theoretical results are in good agreement with the experimental data. We have investigated features of holographic recording in amorphous and liquid-crystalline polymer samples. Recording of multiple holograms in polymer films with different structure was also demonstrated.