9 Libraries Affected if 'Uncle Bobby's Wedding' Removed from Brentwood

The book, Uncle Bobby's Wedding, now being contested at the Brentwood Public Library, would be gone from The Municipal Library Consortium catalogue if Brentwood removed it.

A Brentwood resident has asked that it be taken off the shelves. His stand is that the main topic of the book is same-sex marriage, which is illegal in Missouri.

The Maplewood Public Library is also in the group, and Maplewood director Terrence Donnelly said Brentwood bought the book.

"They own the book, they bought it with their own money," he said. "It's a shared catalogue, but if you buy a book, it belongs to you, so if they withdrew it, it would be gone for everybody."

The Brentwood Library board is scheduled to vote on the book's future at its Nov. 12 meeting.

Donnelly said the decision to buy Uncle Bobby's Wedding at the Maplewood library would be up to his children's librarian.

"We buy our purchases based on recommended lists, and she'd have to research it," he said. "I don't know anything about the title except what I read, in the Patch, actually."

Nine libraries are in The Municipal Library Consortium: Brentwood, Ferguson, Kirkwood, Maplewood, Richmond Heights, Rock Hill, University City, Valley Park and Webster Groves.

Donnelly said he knows of only one instance of a "challenge" at the Maplewood library, "when a mother wanted us to hide the covers of magazines such as Cosmopolitan. I pointed out that all those magazines she mentioned could be found on clear display at the supermarket checkout, and I never heard any more about it."

Read more on Patch:

• Fate of Uncle Bobby's Wedding to be Decided by Nov. 12 or Sooner
• Book on Gay Marriage Contested at Brentwood Library Board Meeting
• Banned Books Week: Brentwood Library Book on Gay Marriage is Contested