The Friends of the Austin Public Library are back with another book sale, but this one is much different than the group’s usual style.

After several used book sales, the Friends of the Library wanted to bring in brand new books and give people another idea for holiday gifts. The Friends bought about $7,000 worth of books and items through Barnes & Noble, and the group will now host a sale from 4 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, noon to 6 p.m. Friday, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday in the small meeting room at the Austin Public Library, which will be decorated for the holidays.

“This one is actually a book fair and it’s all new materials from Barnes & Noble, and we haven’t done this before,” Friends’ member Dorothy Krob said. “It’s just kind of a new idea and we’d like to expand out from all the used book sales.”

The sale will have books for children, adults and teens, and it will also have other items, such as calendars, journals, planners, cookbooks, 3D puzzles and games. There will also be free wrapping paper.

“What we’re trying to do is have like a one-stop shopping place for people,” Krob said.

Profits from the sale will be donated to the Austin Public Library for programs like the children’s summer reading program, or to purchase books for children, help pay for entertainment throughout the year, help fund the Austin Page Turners program, fund author visits, and help fund the poetry contest in the spring.

“The main idea was that we do not have a general book store in town, and we would offer this and raise a little money for the library,” Friends’ President Sue Grove said.

Friends members were able to pick out the books based off community input and bestsellers lists provided to them by the Barnes & Noble community specialist. They even had a retired kindergarten teacher help pick out children’s books. Some books are also bi-lingual. Grove had a blast picking out books for the sale.

“You should have seen us, we were wild,” Grove laughed. “It was like, this is wonderful!”

The funds for the books came from the Friends of the Library’s general fund. Grove said organizers are able to return any books not sold during the sale, although they may donate some of them to the library.

The sale will feature new books at ticket price, but because the Friends of the Library are a nonprofit, there will be no tax charged. Grove initially went to the community specialist at Barnes & Noble for other authors’ books she was hoping to sell at the Austin Artworks Festival that required a retail book seller.

The specialist later approached the Friends members about holding the book fair in December. Grove and Krob hope the sale will help people who want to buy books but don’t want to or can’t drive all the way to the nearest book store.

“It should be a lot of fun, it’s a first time try with it and we’ll see how it goes,” Krob said.

The Friends also wanted to thank community members for book donations from the used book sale in October and all the support throughout the years. They also wanted to thank both the Austin Hy-Vee store and Jim’s Marketplace for helping to promote the sale by putting flyers in shopping bags.

“We appreciate all the community support,” Grove said.