adding local artwork to tracks in itunes without embedding

hi

i am new to itunes, having recently switched from a PC to a Mac, and am trying to add artwork to tracks in my itunes library. all of my artwork is stored in each album folder. the images are typically 300-400kb each (i want high quality artwork for fullscreen playback so have scanned my CD covers) and i have multiple artwork for some albums, so would rather avoid embedding artwork as this could increase the size of an album folder by several MBs. i am aware of the Album Artwork folder for non-embedded itunes artwork that is accessed using the 'get album artwork' feature in itunes 7, but this only seems to work for getting album artwork from the itunes store, which i don't want to do as i already have better quality artwork on my local hard drive. so does anyone know a way of getting images into the Album Artwork folder from a local drive in such a way that they will be recognised in itunes?

thanks

nick.

G'day nick harambee.

This is a tricky one to understand .... Normally I personally do this:

Highlight all tracks from an album and do a Get Info on the group. Confirm that I do want to effect change on the items, then just drag'n'drop the album art into the art square and the tracks are updated. Then I toss the art away or in your case file them away for emergencies.

So, do I have it right that the above method is the very one that you are trying to avoid???