Laurie Lyda in a recent Library Notes column expressed her pleasure in viewing the “Outlander” series on Netflix and informed readers that the books on which the video series is based are available at Rowan Public Library.

The video series “is not available because of its Mature rating,” she wrote.  She is quite right, and in fact R-rated movies on DVD have been completely absent from the library’s collection for years.

There is evidently some prohibition against acquiring them, even though a great many classic, high-quality movies bear the R-rating. I would like to know the origin of this prohibition and the rationale for it. (Library staff have not provided a satisfactory answer to that question.) Moreover, I would like to see some of the best R-rated movies made available in the collection.

— Richard Brisbin

Salisbury