You might consider initializing your $dbh thus:

$dbh = DBI->connect($dsn, $db_user, $db_pass,
                    { RaiseError => 1 }
                   ) or croak "Couldn't connect to database";
[download]

The RaiseError argument will allow you to avoid the

or die $dbh->errstr
[download]

on each of your database actions.

Namaste

C.J.