How to share subset of iTunes library between two computers

I've searched the forum for this information, and I've seen similar questions, but not exactly what I'm looking for.
Here's the scenario:
My wife and I both access iTunes from different computers (I use a Mac, she uses Windows), using different iTunes accounts. We both sync our iPhones, iPods, iPads with these computers. The music library consists almost entirely of music that I ripped from CDs, we rarely purchase music from iTunes.
For my Mac, the entire iTunes library currently is located on an external NAS drive. My wife's iTunes library is on her Windows machine, so she doesn't have access to the music from her iTunes installation. For now, we sync both my wife's iPod and mine from the Mac.
What I would like to do is keep separate iTunes libraries for my wife and I, so that we could each have our own apps, but have both libraries point to the external NAS drive for music and playlists, so we could both sync music and playlists to our devices from the same source. We can avoid updating music or playlists for both computers at the same time.
Can a local iTunes library be configured to store music, playlists, and associated metadata on an external drive, but everything else on the local drive? From some of the other responses I've seen, having the music files on the external drive didn't appear to be an issue, but it wasn't clear if the playlists and metadata would be kept with the music files or in the local library.

From Using iPad or iPod with multiple computers, http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1202
"iPod shuffle and iPhone are intended for use with a single computer. You cannot load music from multiple computers or iTunes libraries onto iPod shuffle and iPhone like you can with other devices."

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