Multiple iPhoto libraries from external drive. How to work with them all

I'm not an expert user so forgive me. But I have tons of pictures and videos of family.
I've had to save 2 libraries on an external drive and going on my 3rd. I had to do it because the computer was running super slow and giving me warnings. Each library is about 115GB.
Now my question is: Whats the easiest way to work with all libraries a the same time? I create slide shows and videos and often need pictures and videos that are in the different libraries..... problem being, I have to close a library, open the next, import and export photos from one to the other.......
I think you get my point.....any suggestions are appreciated.

Thank you again Larry.
Unfortunately some horrible thing just happened . I was getting ready to put your advice to work and...........
I went to verify all my libraries were in the External drive (My passport for Mac) before I did anything else.  I couldn't find the drive. I  called the company and apparently the is a problem with the drive and my only option is to try recover the data from a recovery data service....
What did just happen???? I'm still hopeful I can recover it. and I may have a back up in another drive.
So this is semi-related question. How many back ups of your pictures should you have to be safe? and How do I know which devices are reliable? I thought these two Mt Passports from Western Digital were ok? Any advice?

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