She earned a master's degree in history and graduated from the School of Librarianship at the University of California, Berkeley in 1930.

From 1932 to 1938, she was the city library director in Watsonville, California, where she knew John Steinbeck's sister Esther, and heard her apologize over some scenes in his novel, The Grapes of Wrath.

"[9] In 1970 she lobbied to preserve book and library postal rates, a particular concern for librarians in larger Western states.

[11] Carma was able to achieve this through various methods, one of the most successful being her decision to a weeklong workshop where librarians from around the state could meet and begin creating "good, well-defined basic standards."

Following this first workshop, the "Standards for Public Library Service in California," as they came to be called, were officially adopted by the CLA membership in November 1953.

[14] In the early 1950s, she went to West Germany as part of the American Library Association's efforts to assist post-war rebuilding, and she was a member of the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services.

[21] Her second husband was political scientist, former Bennington College president and dean of the Columbia University Library School, Robert Devore Leigh.