Looking for good vintage material for your mods?

[SATMA]

And now a super important public service announcement!

It can be tricky to find good vintage material from the '50s or early 20th century to use in a mod. Whether you're trying to find audio for a new radio station or posters for a new GTS location, it can often be the case that scavving for stuff on Google will land you the same old material over and over; or worse, hundreds of photoshops that, while funny in their own right, might look a bit out of place in Fallout 3. As well, some material - especially audio - you might either have to pirate, or buy; the former being both illegal and unsafe, and the latter potentially hazardous, depending on who you're buying from, and definitely expensive. However, there is a third option: libraries.

 

One of the most valuable resources you don't even have to leave your house to use: WorldCat.org. This giant online catalog aggregates the holdings of libraries across the planet, and if you're even looking for ideas for stuff to use, it can be invaluable. For example, I'm considering making a new radio theater mod. A quick search of "radio classic" on WorldCat unearthed a trove of names and titles to use. As well, WorldCat can help you get the rest of the way too - taking that info, you can ask your local librarian about arranging an Interlibrary Loan for it.

 

Another great resource is Archive.org. This internet repository, which gave us the Internet Wayback Machine, is also an enormous collection of public domain materials, especially audio and video recordings.

 

Some important caveats, kiddies.

• ILL policies tend to vary from library to library, and often, public libraries might have to charge for the service. However, if you're a student, your school or college may be able to make interlibrary loans free for you, so as you head back this semester, bear that in mind.
   
  While the idea of paying for something from the library might sound bogus, remember the alternatives: buy the material from a commercial service, which may not necessarily be cheap, or attempt to pirate a copy instead. The latter, aside from being illegal, can also be dangerous. P2P and Torrent databases are notorious for running ads that are potentially infected with malware, and the torrents themselves may be tainted. Especially in a case like this, where you're looking for rather specialized material, the chances that you download falsely titled, malicious material are quite high. By patronizing a library, you can be sure that the material you get is safe and actually what it bills itself to be, and you'll help support a public institution to boot.
   
   
  
• Do bear in mind, though, that materials loaned from libraries are still subject to copyright. Especially with music and other audio recordings, you may run into some issues if you go uploading them willy-nilly. However, material from 1925 or before will generally be beyond any copyright clause and in the public domain. Also bear in mind, that while the loaned material might be copyright, the code of your mod is not, so you could still upload the ESPs and directories, and include information on which materials to get for the mod.
   
   
  
• In the interest of full disclosure, while I am not an employee of WorldCat or Archive.org, I am a grad student specializing in archives and library science, thus I have some self-interest in promoting my profession. However, unlike a stealth marketer, I'm honest about it. Isn't that nice?
   
   
  
• Finally, feel free to post any good resources you know about for vintage material, or to ask some questions about what I've said. I'll try to answer them - or point you in the right direction - as best I can.
  

Don't feed the Yao Guai! That is all.

[Rabbit1251]

You have presented some very useful and valuable links, intelligently given, even for a "vintage" player like myself. I will enjoy exploring them. I'm sorry that all that I can offer you in return is a 'kudo'. But please be aware that it is most sincerely given. Thank you.

 

 

The Rabbit