Anyone have recommendations how to best manage tracks that are originally saved on one volume (e.g. iBook, outside the iTunes Music folder), archived to another (e.g. Firewire drive), then some removed from the original volume and some copied from the other as needed?

iTunes is confused when it can't find tracks in their original locations and it's too much trouble manually selecting their new locations for more than a few tracks. Dragging an updated folder onto iTunes won't work as desired (and messes up original Date Added info).

So, I'm looking for some way to copy tracks between volumes *and* preserve the integrity of the iTunes library. Even with multiple libraries it's not clear what strategy to use. I haven't found any clear and complete explanation how to do such a thing. TIA for any advice or references.

Oh, after I get a desktop Mac I'll merge all tracks into one master library and clean that up, then keep a subset of it on my iBook. That'll be easier to manage.