The reading room of a library, archive or documentation center is a space open to users to consult documents in situ and serve as support for reading, study or research.

Although the essential function of a reading room is not the storage of books, this role, being in principle attributed to the warehouse, which is a space reserved for staff, implies nothing more than shelves that make the most common works available to users (or sometimes even the entire collection when the establishment is not equipped with a warehouse).

Depending on their size, libraries may involve several reading rooms, in which case each may specialize in a discipline.

Each reading room has a service point, that is, a reception point where readers can go to a librarian or an archivist to request information or help.

In a reading room, which is a workplace, silence is mandatory and food and drinks are prohibited there so as not to damage the collections.

Generally, reading room workspaces vary in comfort across establishments, but involve at least a table and chair, and sometimes an individual lamp and a power outlet for connecting laptops.

Sometimes, especially in reading rooms specializing in recent newspapers "Newspaper (publication)"), armchairs and low tables are available.

Reading rooms are often equipped with microfilm or microfiche readers to be able to consult documents preserved in this form.

More recently, the reading rooms have also included computer stations with access to integrated management systems that allow, in particular, to consult the catalog and submit a request to obtain a document kept in the warehouse. In some cases, these stations are connected to the Internet or to a system for viewing documents stored on computer media (numbered documents, multimedia documents, press articles). Such IT parks may be freely accessible or require accreditation, or even a reservation for the room bank.

Sometimes, photocopiers are installed in reading rooms, to allow readers to make a copy of a document that interests them, so that they can consult it outside the room.

Sometimes in the reading rooms there is a space with devices that make defective documents visible: reading machines, tele-enlargers, etc.