Ulrich was born in Oakland, California, on August 16, 1880 to parents Lina Linck (Hartman) and Rudolph Ulrich. Her family later moved to New York and she enrolled in the Pratt Institute for one year.[1]
Ulrich began working as assistant in the Brooklyn Public Library in 1906, with no formal library training.[1] As a result, she attended the Albany Summer Library School during the summer of 1907 and remained an assistant at the Brooklyn library until 1912.[1] In 1913 she became "first assistant," a position she held until 1917.[1] In 1914, Marian Cutter and Ulrich travelled to Newfoundland and Labrador to help with the Grenfell Mission. They helped catalogue books and establish travelling libraries.[2] Ulrich returned to the Pratt Institute to earn her certification in library studies. After graduating in 1918, she joined the staff at Bridgeport Public Library in Connecticut where she worked to develop travelling libraries to serve factory workers.[2] In 1922, she was appointed chief of the periodicals division of the New York Public Library's Main Branch.[1]
In 1932, as chief of the periodicals division of the New York Public Library, Ulrich published the Periodicals Directory: A Classified Guide to a Selected List of Current Periodicals Foreign and Domestic. This was the beginning of Ulrich's Periodicals Directory.[3] She later Chaired the American Library Association (ALA) Periodicals Section and Join Committee on Standardization of Periodicals.[1] In 1936, Ulrich was appointed to represent the American Standards Association on the International Standards Association Committee 46 on Documentation.[4]
In 1943, Ulrich and Karl Küp published "Books and Printing, a Selected list of Periodicals, 1800-1942."[5] In 1946, she published "The Little Magazine, A History and a Bibliography" with Frederick J. Hoffman and Charles Allen.[6]
^Lawrence Clark Powell (1945). "Reviewed Work: Books and Printing, a Selected list of Periodicals, 1800-1942. By Carolyn F. Ulrich and Karl Küp by Carolyn F. Ulrich, Karl Küp". The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America. 39 (1): 76–78. doi:10.1086/pbsa.39.1.24298483. JSTOR24298483.
^Herbert J. Muller (April 1947). "Reviewed Work: The Little Magazine, A History and a Bibliography by Frederick J. Hoffman, Charles Allen, Carolyn F. Ulrich". New York History. 28 (2): 235–237. JSTOR23149731.
