Experience
Penny Sympson holds a Master of Library and Information Science degree from an American Library Association accredited university. At WJE, she manages the corporate library, which contains more than ten thousand engineering-related materials, with an emphasis on bridges, concrete, concrete repair, and structural steel. She purchases, catalogues, and maintains the collection of codes, testing standards, material specifications, textbooks, manuals, and reports.
Ms. Sympson manages the library's administrative staff, the library’s Intranet page, and performs research for more than four hundred professional engineers, architects, and materials scientists. In 2010, she was selected to participate in Synergy: The Illinois Library Leadership Initiative. Prior to joining WJE, Ms. Sympson spent three years as a reference librarian at a busy suburban public library and spent eight years as an economist for a government agency, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, where she researched financial and agricultural markets.
Professional Affiliations
Special Libraries Association
Education
Western Illinois University
Bachelor of Business, Economics, 1986
Master of Arts, Economics, 1987
Dominican University
Master of Library and Information Science, 1997
