I am trying to move my wife's iPhoto '08 library to my new iMac for iPhoto '11.

Question

I am trying to move my wife's iPhoto (2007) library on a Macbook to my new iMac for iPhoto '11.  First, when I opened iPhoto on the iMac it asked me to create a library, which I did.  Then I imported her photos via a wireless network to my "new" library.  However, when it finally finished importing, it had imported 3 copies of each photo from her library.  I deleted the "new" library and started over.
Second, I opened iPhoto on the iMac and chose to use "other library."  I chose my wife's shared iPhoto library and it began transferring the photos to the new iMac (or so I thought).  This worked beautifully as it only brought over single photos and not 3 copies like discussed above.  After editing the new library and adding some photos from an old PC, I shut down iPhoto.  A few hours later I tried to open iPhoto on the iMac and it gave me the opening screen again with choices to create a new library or use a different library.  As it turns out, my wife's Macbook and been disconneted from our wireless network.  I was able to figure out that that unless my wife's Macbook is connected to the network then I cannot access the iPhoto library on my iMac.  I was under the impression that I had copied her library to my computer and that the photo files were now on the hard drive of the iMac.  So when her computer is offline I can no longer access the imported library.  I want her library to stay on the iMac as we plan to sell her Macbook.  As you now know, we cannot access her iPhoto library on the Macbook since she is running an older version of iPhoto.
So, what I would like to do is to completely transfer the photos from her Macbook to my new iMac and be able to access them on the iMac regardless of whether she is on the network or not because we plan to sell her Macbook to a friend.  Thank you for any help you can provide.

Answer 1

To move an iPhoto Library to a new machine:
Link the two Macs together: there are several ways to do this: Wireless Network,Firewire Target Disk Mode, Ethernet, or even just copy the Library to an external HD and then on to the new machine...
But however you do choose to link the two machines...
Simply copy the iPhoto Library from the Pictures Folder on the old Machine to the Pictures Folder on the new Machine.
Then hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'
and select the Library that you moved.  That's it.
This moves photos, events, albums, books, keywords, slideshows and everything else.
Your first option didn't work because you imported one Library to another. Every version and thumbnail is imported like a distinct photo, you lose all your Albums, Keywords etc., the link between Original and Previews is destroyed, the non-destructive editing feature is ruined and so on. In summary: it's mess.
Your second option didn't work because you simply referenced her library on the old machine.
Regards
TD