"iTunes Library could not be found" question

This is for iTunes 10 running Snow Leopard on an LED iMac.
I created a new Library and my old one won't open. Both are in an external drive.
When I option, open it I get the "an iTunes Library could not be found" message. All of the music is still in there, I can see it. I'm not sure what's going on but I'm wondering if I could import the songs (about 2000mp3's), artwork, etc., to a new Library. I don't care about playlists and such.
Any other ideas?
Thanks.

My immediate thought is if it has to do with the naming of the files.  I haven't tested this but I wonder if you kept the name of the actual library file the default name instead of adding "Niki" if it would then work just selecting the folder. In other words, if iTunes has instructions if you select a folder to then check for a specific file inside that folder, and by your renmaing the file it no longer sees exactly "iTunes Library.itl" and doesn't know to search about inside that folder for a library file with any other name.
Somewhere in my references (not sure where) I recall something about library file naming conventions.  I'm not sure if they are in:
What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
iTunes 9: Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847
Image of iTunes folder structure Dec. 2011 - https://discussions.apple.com/message/16923545
see also:
Image of folder structure and explanation of different iTunes versions (turingtest2 post) - https://discussions.apple.com/message/13025536
What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html

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