Best way to change Iphoto library referenced across multiple external drives

Hello,
I am relatively new to mac and I think I've gotten myself into trouble with my large collection of photos. I have a single iphoto library which references photos on multiple external drives. However, iphoto is now very slow to launch and I believe this is due to the number of photos (~160k+, I think) in the library. How should I reconfigure my iphoto library for better performance? I would still prefer to have a single library if possible, am willing to have multiple if necessary.
Is the best approach to destroy my iphoto library and recreate multiple libraries, one for each drive with the libraries being located on the external drives with the photos? Any negatives to this? I am really worried about losing photos.
From searching the forums I believe I have an approach but I am uncertain if it is the best way. Is the best approach to destroy my iphoto library and recreate multiple libraries, one for each drive with the libraries being located on the external drives with the photos? Any negatives to this? I am really worried about losing photos.
The library itself is on the main hard drive while the photos are spread across 3 external drives, with some on the main drive as well. I have been manually importing the photos through finder, then adding them to iphoto. I am using Iphoto 11.
Any tips, pointers, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

1 - a referenced library is extremely problematic and is strongly not recommended - especially one spread accross several volumes
2 -  iPhoto Library Manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ -  can convert to a managed library - check the option to copy imported items to the iPhoto library and rebuil using IPLM
3 - this is likely to cure the slowness too
4 - multiple libraries are not necessary or desireable
5 - the only protection against losing photos is a great backup scheme - I run Time Machine giving  me hourly backups and do a daily bootable clone giving a second backup - plus do an occasional off site backup
LN

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