A new café and event space is transforming UNSW Sydney’s award-winning bookstore, the UNSW Bookshop, extending the services provided by the bookshop for those within UNSW and the broader community.

The 430 square metre store is situated in the heart of UNSW’s Kensington campus and includes a new central room for events, a reading room, and a café with indoor and outdoor seating space for 40 patrons.

Independently-run, the bookshop is managed by UNSW Press Ltd, a company owned by UNSW. UNSW Press CEO Kathy Bail said, “In a world where digital retail has disrupted the traditional bricks and mortar model, bookstores are no longer simply about the stock they carry. By creating a new community hub, the reinvigoration of the bookshop offers benefits to customers that extend far beyond the products we sell.”

The refurbishment will support an expanded events program including book launches and talks from top Australian and international authors and performers, book clubs, student events and book readings for children.

The independently-operated Atomic Press Café integrated within the Bookshop is open seven days a week. It serves a range of seasonal meals and baked goods, with coffee from artisanal roaster, Atomic Coffee Roasters. This will be the New Zealand company’s first retail presence in Australia.

UNSW President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Jacobs said, “I am delighted that our UNSW Bookshop has been refurbished and expanded. A love of books, reading and writing is a feature of our university community and we undertook the refurbishment to create a welcoming and stimulating environment.

“It is my hope that the bookshop will become an important focus of campus life, bringing staff, students and visitors together to explore the books and meet in the new coffee shop.”

More from The Business Conversation:

Tech-phobia unable to stop Australia’s next generation of growth companies

Sparkling achievement: new partnership launches Aussie beverage pioneer Nexba into the UK

New partnership fetches more convenient on-demand delivery system for businesses