Going to this for research for my extended essay at sixth form was my first foray into research and a research library.

Almost 10 years later I'm still at it. https://twitter.com/theULSpecColl/status/1247881368182243329

This was a brilliant exhibition and I was desperate to be able to return and go up those steps to the library 'proper' @theUL one day. Reader, I went back.

(It was all I'd hoped for and more and *still* research at libraries is one of the things I love best about academic work).

As a first gen academic offerings like this really matter. The sheer opportunity to go into a place like @theUL even just to gape and wonder at the place itself (even the spinning books outside) as well as to see the manuscripts, the books and to access some of the treasures.

This is one major reason I am all for public facing academic opportunities open to *everyone*. Exhibitions, lectures, talks, you name it. Glimpses like these matter. Otherwise, those steps remain unknown, let alone those which we can hope might one day be open to us to climb.