How do i get my limited internal storage of my macBook Air to use iCloud for photos library now on external drive -- I want to take my photos with me on my macBook Air?

My primary computer is a macBook Air (late 2011). I have two external hard drive attached when I have it on my desk at home. I want to take it with me sometimes and not have to also lug a 3 TB external drive also. How do I get it set up similar to my music library with iTunes Match. The library is on the internal drive, but the media itself is on the external drive.
How do I get the same kind of result as seeing my library on my iOS devices?

I have already turned on iCloud Photo Library and it works just fine for my iPhone. BUT, what I want is for it work on my main machine, the macBook Air. I do NOT have an iMac or other to store the "system" Photos library. I do Not have room on my internal drive for the macBook Air ("system" library is located on an external drive). I don't want to have to lug that 3 TB drive with me. It also will not let me move the library file. The library file is close to 40 Gbytes and I have less than 20 left on my internal drive (and I don't dare let it get much smaller than this)....
Any ideas as to how to do this?
For my iTunes library, I ran into a similar issue, but I simply started a new library and dragged the files (on my external drive) into iTunes. This told iTunes where they were without copying them to the internal drive.
I would think something similar should work with Photos, but I don't know how to do it.

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