Eileen Hilda Colwell (16 June 1904 – 17 September 2002) was a pioneer children’s librarian, "the doyenne of children's librarianship in Great Britain".

Life

Born at The Manse, Robin Hood’s Bay, Fylingdales, near Whitby in North Yorkshire, Colwell was the third daughter of Methodist minister Richard Harold Colwell and his wife Gertrude (née Mason). 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.Eileen Colwell
'' The Telegraph'', 18 September 2002 After leaving college she worked at

Bolton Library The Bolton Library is a collection of books housed at the University of Limerick and a physical library building in Cashel, County Tipperary, Ireland. It is described as the largest and most important collection of antiquarian books in Ireland out ...

in Manchester before obtaining the new post of Children's Librarian for the

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Great ...

Urban District in North London in October 1926. Mostly providing schools with "book cupboards" she built the children's collection (2,000 volumes) from scratch. In 1929 Colwell was made permanent children's librarian with the opening of Hendon Library where she remained for forty years. She pioneered the use of story telling hours (sometimes with a puppet called Jacko), and let the children help with the running of the library. In 1937 Colwell and Ethel Hayler founded the Association of Children's Librarians, which would ten years later evolve into the Youth Library (now group) Section of the

Library Association The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, since 2017 branded CILIP: The library and information association (pronounced ), is a professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge management, knowle ...

. She would go on to fight for librarians to be included in judging in the Carnegie Medal and

Kate Greenaway Medal The Kate Greenaway Medal is a British literary award that annually recognises "distinguished illustration in a book for children". It is conferred upon the illustrator by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) ...

. In 1965 she was made an MBE. In 1967 she left Hendon, and for a while lectured at

Loughborough University Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for post-nominals) is a public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university since 1966, but it dates back to 1909, when L ...

. She made several radio programmes with the BBC, and between 1966 and 1967 she appeared as a storyteller on the BBC children's programme ''

Jackanory ''Jackanory'' is a BBC children's television series which was originally broadcast between 1965 and 1996. It was designed to stimulate an interest in reading. The show was first transmitted on 13 December 1965, and the first story was the fairy-t ...

'' narrating in several episodes. Her archive, the Eileen Colwell collection of children's literature is held at the Seven Stories museum.

Works

*''Princess Splendour And Other Stories (1969) '' *''The Magic Umbrella And Other Stories Of Telling (1977)'' *''Autobiography, Once Upon A Time (2000) ''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colwell, Eileen 1904 births 2002 deaths English librarians Alumni of University College London Academics of Loughborough University English Methodists British women librarians British children's literature Literacy advocates Members of the Order of the British Empire People from Whitby People from Hendon