Sanfrancisco Sightseeing Shuttle Tours

SAN FRANCISCO - Art lovers, history buffs and science devotees, take note: To get the most out of your next museum visit, make sure you have your cell phone with you.

Not to gab on, of course, but to listen to audio tours that interlace music, relating and recordings from historical archives designed to bring more context to the exhibitions. For many visitors, it comes as a welcome another to the decades-old system of museums renting out expensive handheld devices.

Museums across the country, once disinclined to noisy cell phones, are suddenly encouraging their use. In the past year, about a dozen art institutions - including museums in Los Angeles; Berkeley; Tacoma, Wash.; Minneapolis and Greenwich, Conn. - have begun offering cell phone tours, mostly for free. Dozens more are in the process of implementing the service.