1

In 1971, Michael Goldberg, an artist working in part with Intermedia, and under the aegis of Image Bank, mailed 1000 postcards worldwide calling for groups and individuals working with small-format video to form an international network. People responded listing their contact information, equipment used, and experience. The resulting data was published in the "Video Exchange Directory Bottin Video International", the first of eight such directories published between 1971 and 1981.

It is difficult to understand in the age of the internet how critical such directories were. Producers working alone or in small, underfunded centres, had few other ways to seek out similarly minded people working with the new medium.
Video Inn would build on the directory’s "collect and share" theory of information exchange through other mechanisms such as its international print and document library, its public video library, The "Vancouver Area Video Access Listing," which listed the holdings of all Vancouver area organizations that made video equipment accessible to the public, and "Video Guide," their tabloid-style magazine.



Sources:
Crista Dahl Media Library & Archive
"Making Video 'In'", Editor Jennifer Abbott, Video In Studios, 2000.

2

Exchanging video tape
Circa 1978
Video Inn, 261 Powell Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


3

Cover and back of Video Exchange Directory card.
Circa 1971
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


4

Video Exchange Directory card
Circa late 1970s
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

5

Video Exchange Directory card
1975
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


6

Returned Satellite Video Exchange Directory card
1980
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


7

Returned Satellite Video Exchange Directory card
1981
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


8

Video Exchange Directory card
1981
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

9

Video Exchange Directory Bottin Video International 1971: cover
1971
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


10

Video Exchange Directory Bottin Video International 1971: Introduction
1971
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

11

Video Exchange Directory Bottin Video International 1971: sample page
1971
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


12

The 6th International Video Exchange Directory
1979
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


Credits:
Cover photo: Nomi Kaplan
Printer: Press Gang Publishers