I admit it: I'm overwhelmed. Have been for more than a year, since the museum blogosphere exploded. I've turned increasingly to Twitter to keep up with people who work in museums, and now, to my great delight, many museums are joining Twitter. Now I can get my fix museum-y goodness in 140 characters instead of 140 lines. (Right. Who are we fooling? I'm still reading the blogs.)

So, which museums are diving into Twitter, and why--and why should you follow their tweets?

First, as to why you should follow the museums: Many of the tweets are downright fascinating. They make me want to know more, to seek out the museums' blogs and, if they're in my region, to visit the museums themselves. I suspect they'll have a similar effect on many of you. Here's a sampling, along with some of their recent posts:

The Museum of Life + Science in Durham, NC:

#1391's physical is complete. We just presedated #1390 and in 13 minutes will take him back for his physical. #1391 is waking up as I type.

Our keepers caught up both wolves at 7:30 this morning and they are now in the vet.room with our vet preparing for their transfer physicals.

The Renton History Museum in Renton, WA:

Re: Haunted Renton: 1st legal hanging in WA took place in Renton in 1877, but left no reported ghost. http://tinyurl.com/firstWAh...

@earthshod Re: Haunted Renton: Then there was Dr. Adams' house, which was supposedly haunted, but torn down some years ago.

@earthshod asked about Haunted Renton. Duwamish myth tells of a Cedar River monster who preys on unsuspecting boaters & swimmers.

The Smithsonian Institution:

A sneak peek inside the National Museum of American History. Dedication ceremony webcast on 11/19. More later. http://twitpic.com/i4h3

The U.S. Holocaust Museum:

Frankfurt fair sells antisemitism http://tinyurl.com/45ht3r

Other museums on Twitter include these (but there are many more):

• The Women's Museum of Dallas, TX
• The Exploratorium in San Francisco
• Daily Calendar of Science from Pacific Science Center
• The Monterey Bay Aquarium in California
• The San Francisco Zoo
• The Brooklyn Museum
• The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia
• The Field Museum in Chicago
• The Adler Planetarium in Chicago

For more, check to see which institutions Amy Fox is following on Twitter. She has put together quite a list!

Speaking of Fox: She is MuseumTweets on Twitter, and she's writing her thesis for her M.A. in Museology on how museums are using microblogging. Late last month, BlogHer's own Beth Kanter interviewed Fox about her research into museums on Twitter. The interview is packed with excellent tips for anyone looking to promote cultural offerings (or anything else, really) on Twitter--and it's a must-read for any museums wishing to establish a presence on the microblogging platform.

Other museum or nonprofit professionals looking for advice on how best to use Twitter must read Nina Simon's post on using Twitter. Also valuable are two of Nina's more recent posts, "How Your Museum Can Be an Online First Responder" (about YouTube, but with relevance to Twitter) and "Self-Censorship for Museum Professionals, in which Nina and some colleagues initiate "a larger discussion about courage, thoughtfulness, and consideration of self-censorship." This last post raises some provocative questions about what museums and their representatives feel they can and can't say--and in what forums.

Why are museums on Twitter? For all the usual reasons--to gain exposure, to inform, for fun. But I suspect it's also because Twitter makes it easy to for a staff member to disseminate information without getting herself into too much trouble with her institution. Even if she has to run her tweets past a higher-up, it doesn't take long to proof and approve 140 characters. (Compare this to the approval process for each post on the Smithsonian's Eye Level blog; at Museums and the Web 2007, a writer for the blog explained that each post goes through multiple rounds of approvals and revisions.)

Looking for more tips? Check out Jim Spadaccini's post "Planning for Social Sites", pastwire's post on preservation Twittering as an alternative (or additive) to press releases, The Butterfly Net's suggestion that individual objects be allowed to tweet, and Nina Simon's earlier post "What is Twitter, Really?".

What tips would you give to institutions venturing onto Twitter?

Leslie Madsen-Brooks develops learning experiences for K-12, university, and museum clients. She blogs at The Clutter Museum, Museum Blogging, and The Multicultural Toybox.