Organizing a chaotic library with some duplicates

Over the past few years, due to glitches and clumsiness on my part, I have multiple folders that have my music, and some of these folders have overlapping music (i.e: Folder A has songs 1-500, Folder B has songs 300-700, Folder C may have some new songs but also songs from some of A/B). Note most of this is in the computer, is my own CD's burned in album format.
When I add these folders to the Library, I get some duplicate songs (some of which are "not locateable") and also I now see a pretty nicely organized "itunes" folder in my computer.
Is there a way to simplify/consolidate/organize once and for all so that I can get everything into one master folder?
Looking at past posts, it would appear that Robert Johnson's programs can be of some assistance, but maybe I also need to do more.
For example, could I add all the large folders to my library (which would then have many duplicates), then remove duplicates? or is there a better way that people know about? Has been a huge problem and nightmare for me, would love to fix it once and for all? Thanks so much in advance..

Here's one way to do it:
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
Now you have two full versions of the Library.
3. On the Internal library, trash the Events you don't want there
Now you have a full copy of the Library on the External and a smaller subset on the Internal
Some Notes:
As a general rule: when deleting photos do them in batches of about 100 at a time. iPhoto can baulk at trashing large numbers at one go.
You can choose which Library to open: Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'
You can keep the Library on the external updated with new imports using iPhoto Library Manager

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