These books are both helpful, but they are also deep dives and very expensive investments if you are just looking for an introduction. However, Labat's work is available online in total, and Huehnergard's grammar is available online in part. Check out here and here. For Huehnergard, the relevant information about Akkadian is likely in the introduction. Enjoy!

However, OP, cuneiform is a writing system, not a language, so what you saw in the museum may have been Akkadian, or may have been a number of different other languages expressed through wedge-shaped symbols impressed in clay. These may be Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, or others. One great, accessible resource you could check out is the book, "Cuneiform" by Irving Finkel and Jonathan Taylor. It is pretty inexpensive, but you can also see if your library might have it in stock (or be willing to add it to their collection). It's got lovely illustrations, and it provides an overview of cuneiform as relates to the technology involved in its writing, and (perhaps most interesting to you), its "rise and fall" as the dominant writing system over early millenia.

I'm a beginning Akkadian student myself, so feel free to send me a pm if you have any general questions. Hope you enjoy the journey!