The CPAN is one of the greatest advantages Perl has over most other programming languages. It is searchable. You can configure it so that it will download and test packages prior to installation. It will also offer to download dependencies.
The CPAN is really a timesaver! It is easy to use, and you will find common problems solved so that you can concentrate on solving the unique parts of your problem.
One word of advice, though. Test upgrades on a test system first. I've encountered undocumented or poorly documented changes to Perl modules. They don't occur often, but they do occur. | 