[2] After her education at Penistone Grammar School,[3] she obtained a scholarship and studied librarianship at University College London.
She had become interested in the idea of a children's library at an early age but the UCL course (then the only one of its kind in the country) did not cover the subject.
[4] After leaving college she worked at Bolton Library in Manchester before obtaining the new post of Children's Librarian for the Hendon Urban District in North London in October 1926.
[6] After mostly providing schools with "book cupboards" Colwell built the children's collection (2,000 volumes) from scratch.
[7] In 1929 Colwell was made permanent children's librarian with the opening of Hendon Library where she remained for forty years.