How do I recover my iTunes music library from an external backup?

The bad news:  my iMac G5 died with my iTunes library on it.
The good news:  it was backed up to an external hard drive.
I'm not going to fix the iMac, so I need to retrieve the backup and put it on my MacBook.  How do I import from the external drive to my MacBook?
I also have the library on my iPod, but it appears that if I want to import form the iPod, I have to hook it to the old computer first to switch it to manual syn mode.  But the old iMac is out of service.
Thanks in advance for a pointer to an article or other tips.
Ray

Ray Clark wrote:
How do I import from the external drive to my MacBook?
what is backed up on the external ? the entire iTunes folder including media files and the library files or just the media files ?
if the former, just copy the iTunes folder from the external to <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music on the new Mac.
if the latter, drag the folder containing the media files from the external to the automatically add to iTunes folder inside the iTunes folder on your new Mac.
all your playlists, ratings, playcounts, etc. are lost unless you can retrieve the iTunes library file from the iMac.
I also have the library on my iPod,
check out this post by Zevoneer.

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