MARION – Officials with the Marion Carnegie Library are apologizing to the public after it was brought to their attention during the library’s Free Comic Book Day event Saturday that a child was given a series of comics that were intended for a mature audience.

According to a post on the library’s Facebook page, while officials take full responsibility for the error, it was never their intention to distribute those materials.

This was the library’s first year participating in the Free Comic Book Day event and comics were given to the library pre-packaged in groups of 12 to 15 titles. Every package was marked with either a “All Ages” or “Mature” label that symbolized the age group a particular package was intended. Officials say it was poor judgement on their part to accept the mature titles in the first place. The library did not check each title in each grouping for accuracy which is where the error occurred. Officials say they trusted the comics were packaged correctly and that mistake is the library’s and the library’s alone. Officials are only aware of one mislabeled package at this point and encourage everyone who attended to review the titles they or their child received. The library distributed approximately 100 packages total on Saturday.

Officials say it was never their intention to distribute mature content to children nor is that something they circulate at the library. They regret the error and apologize that more oversight was not in place to prevent such an incident. The library will work over the next weeks and months to regain the public’s trust and will be reviewing and implementing new policies to ensure a similar mistake is not made in the future.

Officials say on behalf of the staff of the Marion Carnegie Library, they are deeply sorry the error was made.