Samsung has provided three towers with eight electrical outlets each to the first floor of E.S. Bird Library.

The outlet towers, adorned with Samsung’s logo, will be in place for at least two years, said Dale King, assistant dean of library administration. The outlets provide additional power sources, which students have been requesting, he said. In exchange for placing the outlet towers around Bird, Samsung will provide the library with two large flat-panel message boards, he said.

Each of the three towers say “Samsung Mobile Charging Station” in glowing white letters placed vertically up the middle of the tower. Inside the towers are different Samsung cellular phones, including the Samsung Mythic and the Samsung Memoir.

When the library was built, King said, it was always the intention to have large message boards, but Syracuse University didn’t have enough money. The message boards, which will now be provided by Samsung, will have flashing and scrolling messages about what’s going on around campus, interesting facts and other information, he said.

The message boards will be on the wall of the Pages café opposite the library entrance and by the library circulation desk.

Samsung came to the university with the offer of free message boards in exchange for usage of the charging stations with Samsung logos. The library accepted the offer because it always intended to add message boards, King said.

Two of the stations are placed among the tables on the first floor, and one is in the café.

Deanna Payson, a freshman political science major, said she didn’t understand the placement of the one in the café because it was next to a space that already provided four outlets. There are only three or four chairs in the area surrounding the tower, which Payson said makes it pointless to provide eight outlets there.

But Payson said she thinks the idea of adding more outlets was a good one.

“It is a giant advertisement, but it’s a plug, so I’ll take the good with the bad,” she said.
Morgan Tiedemann, a junior art photography major, said she didn’t see it as an advertisement at first, and she didn’t think the cell phones inside would make anyone more likely to buy them. She also agreed that the outlets in the table area are useful but the one in the café does not serve much of a purpose.

King said any students who think the towers detract from the library’s appearance or have complaints are always welcome to leave comments in the library’s suggestion box.

Published on March 8, 2010 at 12:00 pm