Enoch Pratt Free Library officials happily discovered the esteem one of their retirees held for the place.
At her death, Sara Siebert directed that more than $650,000 of her assets go to the library, a figure that exceeds the total of all the paychecks she took home in her 34 years as Pratt's director of young adult reading.
Siebert, an energetic and popular librarian who sought no attention as a donor during her life, left an estate of more than $2 million after her death at age 88 last year.
Having no survivors, she divided her assets among the Baltimore institutions she admired - the Pratt, the Walters Art Museum and the Broadmead Retirement Community in Cockeysville, where she spent the final years of her life. She also created a $600,000 trust for Goucher College, her alma mater.
"It's amazing. Librarians traditionally aren't paid that much," said Pratt Director Carla D. Hayden. "It's one of the largest single gifts we've received."
Colleagues recalled Siebert, who ardently preached that teens read the classics, as a petite woman who wore Ferragamo pumps and tailored suits. They compared her to film star Jean Arthur, with a blond bob. She regularly made visits - and held inspections - at branches in impoverished city neighborhoods. She insisted that staff members have quality books displayed and ready for any teen patron. She would discuss books with her staff and argue their literary merits.
"I remember the day I met her," said Deborah Taylor, the Pratt's school and student services coordinator. "I was a ninth-grader at Western High. She ran me all over the library, recommending one book after another. Other students came to be in awe of her because they had never seen anyone more passionate about books."
Siebert trained young librarians to match the right adult book for a young mind.
"She was a force," Taylor said. "She was always moving fast. She was always so adamant. Once she made up her mind, there was no changing it."
Years before her death, Siebert quit smoking and sold valuable tobacco company stocks her father had purchased. With those funds she established a charitable trust for Goucher College, which received more than $600,000 at the time.
"She was astute financially. She was a very wise investor and was prudent. She's giving it back to Pratt with interest," said her attorney, former state Sen. Julian L. Lapides, whose wife Linda worked alongside Siebert for many years. "Her will was exactly and precisely what she wanted. She gave back to the institutions that made a significant difference in her life."
