Partial Duplicate iTunes Library onto MacBook Pro for portability?

Question

As many of you, my iTunes library is growing leaps and bounds and as such I've have it on an external 1 TB drive. It is connected to my MacBook Pro while at home and it is the master to which I sync my iPhone and TV.
Now when I want to go portable with my laptop, I lose my iTunes library. I cannot transfer the entire library to the MacBook Pro because it is too large for the laptop's internal drive.
Is there a way to make the MacBook Pro have a secondary library that is a selected portion of your master library like you do with your iPhone or TV?
Surely someone has come across this with the use of laptops and explosive growth of iTunes.
Thanks

Answer 1

you can create a secondary library on your MBP but, personally, i find running multiple libraries cumbersome.
instead, you can have selected content stored on your MBP (while the bulk remains on the external) and still use only one library.
you could use the following script to move your selection from the external to your boot drive:
[_*Re-Locate Selected v1.1*_|http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=relocateselected]
This script will re-locate the files of the selected iTunes tracks from their current location to a new user-chosen folder. iTunes will be updated with each track's new location and all of each track's meta-data will be preserved. Option to remove the files from their original location. (I don't advise using this on more than an album's worth of tracks or so at a time; re-locating dozens of tracks' files to a single folder doesn't seem to make much sense to me.)
NOTE: If your "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" preference set, you will not be able to create new folders in or re-locate files within the iTunes Media folder; outside is OK.
or, you can do it manually:
(1) go iTunes > preferences > advanced and temporarily point +*iTunes media folder location+* to your local iTunes folder. on the same tab, ensure +*copy files to ... when adding to library+* is check marked.
(2) select (highlight) the desired content in iTunes, right-click (or ctrl-click) and choose +consolidate files+ from the pop-up menu.
when done you could delete the files you moved from their original location (the external) or just keep them there for backup purposes.
don't forget to point +*iTunes media folder location+* back to the external.
if you insist on a separate library for your MBP, you might want to take a look @ these 3rd party apps:
PowerTunes
[_*iTunes Library Manager*_|http://dougscripts.com/itunes/itinfo/ituneslibrarymanager.php]