(not) emptying iphoto 5 trash

Question

My iphoto 5 trash has 975 photos, this after a mixup of my iphoto library which after disappearing, returned as blank thumbnails with filenames; I renamed the library as iphoto_old, moved it to the desktop, and recreated it from within iphoto-file menu. Then I had all the grey squares as well as the images with the same respective filenames. I began deleting the grey squares, which went fine until I noticed that the trash reached 975, because I was wondering why it was taking so long that I'd begun investigating. I'd also searched the Discussions forum on this topic.
I also tried using Spotlight to see if I could find a way to get all the .jpg images into a new folder, and back up the whole works that way--then, rebuild the Library. Otherwise, I'd try again using the iphoto menu method, which took a few hours last night and I don't look forward to ending up with the same results as before.
So, I'm going to back up the Library onto an external hard drive once I've hooked that up, but that will still leave me with an overfilled trash album and a lot of duplicate empty files, won't it? If there is a way to avoid that problem, I'd love to read about it before wandering down another dead end...

Answer 1

Yes you can import photos from a CD/DVD, or any folder on your hard drive. the photos are copied into iPhoto's database, so you can delete the folder of photos after they are imported into iPhoto.
There are two different ways of sharing. Here are all the links I have for both ways.
SHARING IPHOTO LIBRARIES
Sharing libraries between users on the same local network
You can also share a library on the same machine between users the same way.
Sharing libraries between users on the same machine...
-both users must have sharing enabled in their iPhoto Preferences
-both users must be logged in and have iPhoto running
-Remember that you can only view the other library. You can't edit the photos or play the saved slideshows or view the made books or burn them to CD or DVD. The books and slideshows will show up as an album. You can play that album as an "on the fly" slideshow. You can drag images from the sharing library to your library in the source column to import them to your library. You can then edit, add to albums, books, slideshow, etc.
Sharing links from Apple....
Sharing your photos between computers
About shared photos
Turning off photo sharing
Looking for shared photos
SHARING ONE IPHOTO LIBRARY BETWEEN USERS ON SAME MACHINE
You can try one of these three methods:
1- Use iPhoto Library Manager-the paid version
The documentation page will give instructions on how it is done.
2- Sharing one iPhoto library between several users on one machine
3- Share an iPhoto Library in tiger Using ACL's
4- I have also read about ShareAlike
There is no other info on the site about how it works.
I strongly urge anyone wanting to try any of the methods for sharing one iPhoto Library folder among more than one user to backup all iPhoto Library folders before attemptin anything.