Iphoto library lacks the picture icon

Hi all-
I noticed a few weird things recently with my iphoto-- many video clips lack thumbnails (ie the only way to tell what clip it is is by actually viewing it). Some are just black/ no video. Same with some pictures- they're just black/gone. I tried to recover using time machine- didn't help. I noticed that in finder, the iphoto library lacks the 'picture' icon and is a "package" file (see attached screenshot). But- it's the right size and other than what I describe above it seems to work ok. I made a backup of entire HD with carbon copy cloner. Even when I reboot and select the external HD iphoto library it looks the same (no icon)- and in fact it won't let me select that "package file" as the library. I tried fixing with iphoto (permissions, recreating thumbnails etc) to no avail. At this point I think I should re-load iphoto and see if that helps-- but my concern is that if I delete iphoto and reload that I won't be able to use the library on my external drive since I can't use it currently.
any suggestions?
I'm using OS X and iPhoto '11, both updated.
thanks in advance,
Brad

If rebuilding the database doesn't solve the problem you might have to give this a try:
Starting over from scratch with new library
Start over with a new library and import the Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from your original library as follows:
1. Open the library package like this.
2. Launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
3. Drag the subfolders of the Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from the open iPhoto Library package into the open iPhoto window a few at a time.
This will create a new library with the same Events (but not necessarily the same Event names) as the original library but will not keep the metadata, albums, books slideshows and other projects.
Note: your current library will be left untouched for further attempts at a fix if so desired.

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Iphoto library lacks the picture icon

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