How do I merge my iTunes libraries and make them accessible from multiple Systems?

Our family has several Macs using several versions of OSX.
My Music collection, mostly converted from my large collection of CDs, is scattered across all the Macs and several hard drives with Systems running OSX 10.6.8, 10.8.5 and 10.9.4.
The older Macs can not be upgraded to either Mountain Lion nor Mavericks.
My most organised library is the latest on the Mac running Mavericks. It is tidy ALAC, and has all the correct metadata such as covers, composers, ISBNs etc. So I have started by organising those onto an external 1.5 Tb Hard Drive in a folder called Central iTunes Library.
I intend to then go through the Libraries on the other hard drives and systems and add them to this central external collection.
1. Will I be able to open the Central Library (created in iTunes 11.2.2) on the older Macs and Systems directly, by plugging in the hard drive?
2. Is there a better way than reopening the files from the other Systems and Hard Drives and importing them all over again into the Central Library?
eg Drag and Drop or File > New or a Dedicated Utility for the purpose
3. Is sharing from my Mac, the only way to let everyone access the library?
4. Will the other Macs be able to add to the Central Library once it is shared from my Mac?
5. How do we manage our various iPhones, iPods and iPads with one central Library?
6. Are there any hazards to watch out for?
7. What is the best way to have a duplicated backup of the library?
Thanks,
Peter

The concept of a central library sounds great (in principle), but unless you can all follow the same rules about handling playlist/ folder/ genre naming it can get into a mess. Are you sure you want to see all of your son's & wife's music when setting up iOS syncing? I also suspect your son & wife may have a different opinion about accessing all your music (with it's larger ALAC file size) - they may be happier not sifting through all your tracks to find the ones they like for use on iOS?
The store authorizes to the Mac not the library - so as you move around on each Mac & use your AppleID to purchase that Mac will get tied to that AppleID. That would be fine accept iTunes has a 90 day limit on changing the Apple ID on a computer. You will have to wait 3 months to switch to using another Apple ID to download music & apps on that device - that also affects apps that sync from iOS for backups.
Personally I think that users need their own Mac with their own library (& each Mac needs to be backed up), especially if they have their own iOS device that needs syncing to a Mac. Home Sharing is ok for moving files that you want to hear from another library - but it can be bad when a client is on wifi.
iTunes is designed to be a single user who can share over the network - it isn't intended to be one large bucket for every family member to store media, the Apple ID issue makes this pretty clear to me.
Your flaky wifi issue sounds like a reason not to rely on anything that requires networking to work too.
You are correct to worry about the library versions, eventually an iTunes update will alter the library format. Only machines that have that version can open the library - this happened from iTunes 10.7 to iTunes 11.
See how many 'old libraries' you have in the Music/iTunes/Previous iTunes Libraries/ folder - that indicates how many times iTunes has backed up & upgraded the library. Is that more than expected? Major iTunes versions will need to be performed at the same time to keep it all working with the 'central music library'.
You may be tempted to access one iTunes library over file sharing on multiple Macs. This can cause problems when one Mac updates something (placing a file lock on the library file). It's hit or miss whether the other Macs can read & write to the library.
PJRS seems to be using a networked iTunes library - I can't understand how it works with iTunes from Tiger to 10.9? What version of iTunes is used PJRS?

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How do I merge my iTunes libraries and make them accessible from multiple Systems?

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