Students can now visit the USF bookstore seven days a week to purchase textbooks for class or coffee with friends with new extended hours.

The new Sunday hours, which will be from 12-5 p.m., will help students access the bookstore at their convenience.

“With all (students) have going on, the last thing they need is to try to figure out how they're going to get over here to get their course materials or whatever they might need from us,” said Nick Fagnoni, general manager for the USF Bookstore.

The Sunday hours were added after student feedback indicated that it was sometimes difficult for students to get to the bookstore to purchase course materials during the week.

“We decided to try it, give it a whirl, see how students react to it,” said Fagnoni.

The Barnes & Noble Cafe located within the Bookstore will also be open on Sundays, according to Fagnoni.

“(The bookstore) has sort of become a social hub on campus, we feel, so we want to give students the opportunity to take advantage of that seven days a week,” he said.

Fagnoni hopes that students will utilize the bookstore and cafe space as a place to study or meet up with friends on the weekends.

“Hopefully they'll come, they'll meet up with their friends, they'll study, they'll do whatever they need to do in their time,” he said.  “And if they shop while they're here that would be great too, but [the Sunday hours] are really meant to enhance the experience for students.”

Fagnoni said the cafe and outdoor spaces are often crowded during the bookstore’s current hours of operation.

“The space, after we renovated it a few years ago… has been really well-received,” he said.  “We constantly get complimented on the cafe space and having the outdoor seating and the gliders and the whole area.”

The new Sunday hours will be in effect during Spring and Fall 2017 to gauge student interest.

“We’re going to test it for a year to see how it works,” Fagnoni said. “This is the first spring that we’ll do it, summer we won’t be open on Sundays, and in the fall we’ll open up again on Sundays and see how it goes.”