It's taken two centuries, but John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States, has entered the digital age: His entire 3,700-volume personal library is being scanned for online viewing and parts of his personal diary are being micro-blogged on Twitter.

The tweets started on Thursday with this entry from aboard a ship bound for Russia in 1809: "Thick fog. Scanty wind. On George's Bank." Adams was sailing from to St. Petersburg where he was to take over the post of ambassador. The journey ended on Oct. 23 with little fanfare: "Came in a government boat," he wrote.

Realizing that Adams' short journal entries would make an excellent educational forum as tweets, the Massachusetts Historical Society is placing Adams' short notes online (@JQAdams_MHS).

The Massachusetts Historical Society Web site hosts nearly 15,000 pages of the Adams' diary entries spanning 51 volumes. The Boston Public Library holds more than 2,700 volumes from Adams's personal library and has been digitizing the collection. Eventually they will be available online for public viewing.

The idea of Twitter as an educational tool may be catching on. The Tweeting History Web site posts tweets covering the Battle of Gettysburg (@Pres_Lincoln is one) and is planning another tweets history of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

"Here at TwHistory we feel the service can be a novel way to tell the stories of our past," the site states. "We pick historical figures, especially those that kept detailed journals or histories, and tweet the experiences they went through. By doing this, followers get a feel for what has happened many years ago." The TwHistory site is maintained by volunteers.

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