Using MacBook Air with iMac and FCPX

Forgive me if the question may be ridiculous/mega-newbie, but is there any way that a MacBook Air (MBA) running FCPX can usefully be employed when connected to a 2010 iMac (i.e. non-Thunderbolt) on which drives containing Libraries are mounted?

I'm trying to find a way for FCPX on the MBA to do import/rendering work, while I edit other material on the iMac.

Budget is extremely tight, therefore at the moment I don't have the money to invest in new equipment.

I've managed to connect the MBA to the iMac using USB-ethernet and access the drives (Firewire Western Digital Studio) but when I attempt to open a Library, FCPX on the MBA reports that the drives need to be NAS or local.

Is this a hiding to nothing, given the relatively slow ethernet-USB connection and the limited processing power of the MBA, or is there a relatively simple way to set this up that would provide some value?

Many thanks to veterans for advice on this!

Only two things you can do. Set up network transcoding in Compressor and let the MBA do some of the work. Drawback, USB bottleneck, MBA lack of GPU/CPU horsepower could possibly slow you down more than letting the iMac run by itself.

Second, you'd have to copy the Library to a drive and plug that directly into the MBA and let it do the work alone. Again, the time copying a Library from one drive to another may not be worth it.