A study is a room in a house

House

A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...

 which is used for paperwork, computer

Computer

A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...

 work, or reading. Historically, the study of a house was reserved for use as the private office and reading room of a family father as the formal head of a household, but today studies are generally either used to operate a home business

Home business

A home business is a small business that operates from the business owner's home office. In addition to location, home businesses are usually defined by having a very small number of employees, usually all immediate family of the business owner, in which case it is also a family business...

 or else open to the whole family. Unused cellar space is often converted into a study.

A typical study might contain a desk

Desk

A desk is a furniture form and a class of table often used in a work or office setting for reading or writing on or using a computer. Desks often have one or more drawers to store office supplies and papers. Unlike a regular table, usually only one side of a desk is suitable to sit on . Not all...

, chair, computer, a desk lamp or two, and bookshelves. A spare bedroom

Bedroom

A bedroom is a private room where people usually sleep for the night or relax during the day.About one third of our lives are spent sleeping and most of the time we are asleep, we are sleeping in a bedroom. To be considered a bedroom the room needs to have bed. Bedrooms can range from really simple...

 is often utilized as a study, but many modern homes have a room specifically designated as a study. Such rooms are usually located in a convenient area on the main floor of the house and may be referred to as a den

Den (room)

A den is a comfortable, usually secluded room in a house. In the United States, the type of rooms described by the term den varies considerably by region...

, home office

Small office/home office

Small office/home office, or SOHO, refers to the category of business or cottage industry which involves from 1 to 10 workers. SOHO can also stand for single office/home office....

, or library

Library

In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...

.

The study developed from the closet or cabinet of the Renaissance onwards. The advent of electronic communication and computer technology has widened the appeal of dedicated home working areas, with nearly 20% of all working adults in the United States reporting that they undertake at least some work from home as part of their primary employment.