He or she is a member of the worshipping community, assuming for a moment a leadership role within that community. The beginning of the reading should not be rushed. One of the most common faults is to begin before the congregation is seated and attentive. To do this loses not just the beginning of the reading, but the sense of the reader ministering to the community. After the community is seated and quiet, the reader looks at the community and then begins.
Eye contact is important thoughout, but especially at the beginning of the reading and at the end.
The Word from God is being shared between people of faith. God's Word is holy and the documents of all the main Christian Churches speak of its proclamation as a moment of grace, of God's presence in the community. Reverence for this would suggest that reading Scripture in public from missalettes or scraps of paper is something to be avoided except in very informal settings. The General Instruction to the Lectionary calls for the Scriptures to be read in Church from books that respect the worthiness of their content. Missalettes were introduced in the Catholic Church at the time of the introduction of the vernacular and were intended as a temporary help until people learned the responses in English, or for those who are hard of hearing.