Move perfect external hd / iTunes to different Mac

I have a 1tb external firewire drive on my iMac dedicated to iTunes. Everything is tagged, has artwork, just perfect, but my iMac is getting too slow. I want to move the drive to my MacBook Pro. Ideally, I'd like to keep my playlists too.
If I hook the external to the MacBook, how can I get it to start using that disk without modifying the contents or risking anything? Both are running 10.5.8 and same version of iTunes (9.0.1).
Does setting the Media Folder Location on the MacBook to be the external drive and clicking "keep folder organized" make all this happen? I am just nervous something might get wiped when I do this.
Or, do I need to copy the ~/Music/iTunes library too? I assume I need to do that to keep my playlists, artwork, etc.? Or, some combination of these things?
Thanks!

Forget moving individual files or changing preference settings.
iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music [library] to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527 - a somewhat bewildering and not always easily understandable set of options.
Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings:  Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive.  Open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option (alt) key (shift on Windows), then guide it to the new location of the iTunes Library.itl file in the moved iTunes folder.
For the record there's this reference for iTunes 11 but it really doesn't strike me as having the specifics you need. iTunes 11 for Mac: Move your library to another computer - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12168 

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