perl Makefile.PL
make
# copy blib
[download]

I did as described and still no success.

After I wrangled with unix permissions and the output of the compiler on my local machine, I uploaded the blib path which contains

/arch
/lib
/man3

directories. Then, an error later, as I thought the module coulnd't find it, I moved a copy of the "Piece.so" file from /arch into the /lib tree and got the following error:

"Can't load '/path/to/blib/lib//auto/Time/Piece/Piece.so' for module Time::Piece: /path/to/blib/lib//auto/Time/Piece/Piece.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory at /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/DynaLoader.pm line 202. "

I use "use lib qw( /path/to/blib/lib/ );" in the script.

You should use use lib '/path/to/blib' not use '/path/to/blib/lib' if i understand you correctly.

So the argument to "use lib" should be the directory containing both "lib" and "arch".

update: or maybe you should move the whole "arch" directory into the "lib" dir. I'm not sure.

update 2: after inspecting the code in blib I assume what you actually need to do is:

use lib "/path/to/blib/lib";
use lib "/path/to/blib/arch";
[download]

"What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"

You can specify the installation directory by following the directions at the bottom of the following:
http://www.bugzilla.org/docs/2.22/html/nonroot.html

Then specify which lib to use at the top of your perl script:
use lib qw( /this/is/the/path/to/my/installed/module/ )

Does this comment imply I should stop manualy extracting module tars into my script dirs and instead modify the cpan workings to use a dir in my directory domain (and finally solve the permission problem)?

The CPAN config allows you to establish your own lib in your home file space (or anyplace you can write to). After which you can simply "use lib("path_to_your_cpan_libs") at the top of your perl code. So yes, that is the route that I go when I can't install to the system lib location for Perl. Another method with detail is described here ->

The easiest way to get what you want is to

$>perl -MCPAN -e sh

then

cpan> o conf init

Details here->

hope that helps....

...the majority is always wrong, and always the last to know about it...

Exactly.

You can use CPAN, writing to a directory of your choice to which you have access, then reference that directory in a 'use lib' statement.