My old library back in Texas did not circulate rated R movies. This policy was created by the city council. So depending on your library’s board and/or city, you may need to check with them before changing things. Here we do circulate rated R movies, but only adults can check out movies (18 years old). At the other library in Texas, 16 years old could check out movies. ----- That article can be found here, https://www.michigan.gov/libraryofmichigan/0,2351,7-160-18668_69405_79213-38.... ----- Our opinion is that it is the patron's responsibility to decide what movie content they are comfortable with. We feel it is not the library's job to police what people watch. The content of the movie is not a reflection on the "character" of the library. There are many awarded films that have an R rating and we focus on acquiring movies of quality regardless of the rating. ----- We buy and circulate R rated DVDs. We traditionally only have adult patrons here so there is no real concern regarding children viewing the materials. To my knowledge we have not purchased any NC 17 DVDs although I think that is more due to their rarity. We purchase very few DVDs compared to an average public library. Lately we only get DVDs for specific requests from students (only with end of the year funds if made available) or very rarely an instructor's request comes in for a class material to get purchased. I suspect instructors do not request a lot of DVDs for their courses due to the nature of the majority of STEM classes offered here. We do not purchase a lot of DVDs for entertainment because it does not support the curriculum as well as budgetary concerns. (University library) ----- We do purchase rated R movies for our libraries. We do have a policy in place that the person borrowing them must be 18 years or older- and the card that they are using must be of an adult. Thankfully no one has challenged this yet but it does help if younger kids bring up rated r movies- we can then tell them that their parents have to come in and borrow that particular movie. A great deal of our circulation is movies and we have a huge population of adults that come in to get movies because they don't have cable or high speed internet and don't want to pay Redbox prices. I think they would be extremely upset if we removed rated r movies from our collection. ----- My library doesn’t have a policy specifically on R rated movies. This is all I could find in our (very old) policy manual: 397.605 Selection and use of library materials. Sec. 5. (1) Except as otherwise provided by statute or by a regulation adopted by the governing body of the library, the selection of library materials for inclusion in a library's collection shall be determined only by an employee of the library. (2) Except as otherwise provided by law or by a regulation adopted by the governing body of the library, the use of library materials shall be determined only by an employee of the library. History: 1982, Act 455, Eff. Mar. 30, 1983 . I order the feature films and TV series for my library and I order R rated and unrated movies/TV shows. Is there a specific reason your library doesn’t order R rated movies? Is your service population more on the conservative side, or more likely to complain about the movie’s content? I think it’s important to offer a wide range of materials, especially when it comes to popular movies and TV shows. I look at it as good customer service, since many patrons don’t have cable/internet at home or the money to go see movies in theaters. For example, the popular book Gone Girl was made into a movie. Is the book in your collection? If so, why would the movie not be? Sure, a patron could request an R rated movie through MeL, but new releases often don’t go out in delivery for 3-6 months. ----- I just switched from one library to a new library. Both libraries are in conservative rural areas. Both libraries have DVD and/or Blu Rays and both have Rated R movies available. The general agreement (from both libraries) is that we don't censor books, so why censor movies (but we do draw the line at R - nothing X). ----- We do circulate R movies at our library, but you must be 18 years old to check out any movies. The parent/guardian is the one checking them out and they can decide what their child can or cannot view. This has been our policy for many years and it’s worked well for us. ----- We are not here to censor per the ALA Library Bill of Rights. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/rating-sy... http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill ----- Ditto. (Do not collect rated R movies ----- We have demand for them. We purchase them. They’re adult movies and we put them in the adult collection (not the children’s collection). If you don’t like R rated movies, then don’t check them out. If you don’t want your kids or teens to check them out, then you need to be aware of what your kid or teen is checking out and control that. That’s about it. J ----- In response to your posted question about R-rated movies, the collection development policy at our library states that we aim to provide films based on classic and contemporary novels, educational films, award winners, and movies with significant patron interest. We do not collect/restrict movie selections based on MPPA ratings or any other rating system. With regards to underage patrons and checking out R-rated movies, the burden of monitoring those checkouts is placed on the parent/guardian of the under-aged person. ----- We purchase movies based on our estimate of how popular the title will be in our community, along with other criteria like reviews, awards, etc. We have many r-rated, and some unrated, movies in the collection. We also do not restrict access to our movie collections. ----- We have R rated movies. Have you seen The King's Speech? About Queen Elizabeth's father, King George, before he was King. It is rated R. Most likely for a certain four-letter word. I would never allow the use of one word to stop me from watching a great movie! Why should it stop the library from adding it to the collection? ------ We do circulate R movies because we do not believe in censorship. Many books, if rated, would be getting a "R" rating that are in our collection. (50 Shades, etc). ----- We collect R rated films if reviews or patron demand indicate it falls within the scope of our collection. There are plenty of 'Not Rated' films that would be rated R or above and plenty of books with X-rated scenes in them (plus you've got your art books, etc.). We don't have a special clause regarding unique selection criteria for any facet of our collection. ----- We offer R-rated movies, but we do not allow check out to minors under 17 years without a note from the parents. ----- If it reflects your community's decency standards, I guess it's a reasonable policy, but do you also only purchase books that would not get an R rating by the same standards? i.e. minimal swearing, violence or sexual situations, drug use, etc. Personally, and professionally, I think the user should decide what's right for them so libraries should carry R rated movies and even the rarely used NC-17. If you're working with a limited budget, then quality, not mpaa ratings should be your guide. ----- We collect it all! :-) https://www.wxyz.com/news/-fifty-shades-series-goes-missing-from-berkley-lib... ----- Here are all of the responses I've received so far! I've tried to respond privately to everyone, but if I missed you, I'm very sorry and I greatly appreciate the time it took for you to send me the info!