You can get to the content by using the ->fh method of the entry:

sub _open_sxc_fh($self, $fh, $member, %options) {
    my $zip = Archive::Zip->new();
    my $status = $zip->readFromFileHandle($fh);
    $status == AZ_OK
        or croak "Read error from zip";
    my $content = $zip->memberNamed($member);
    if( ! defined $content ) {
        if( $options{ optional }) {
            return;
        } else {
            croak "Want to read $member' but it doesn't exist!";
        }
    }
    $content->rewindData();
    my $stream = $content->fh;
    1 if eof($stream); # reset eof state of $stream?! Is that a bug? W
+here?
    binmode $stream => ':gzip(none)';
    return $stream
}
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The above subroutine gives you a filehandle from which you can read the information. If you want the data directly instead of a filehandle, use the following:

my $mem;
my $fh = _open_sxc_fh($self, $zipfh, 'readme.txt');
local $/;
my $content = <$fh>; # sluuurp
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This isn't an answer to your question, if I get time this week I'll have a look. I've not used Archive::Zip for this, however I do something similar at work and can confirm this method works to extract the xml to a variable:

use IO::Uncompress::Unzip qw(unzip $UnzipError);
#lots of unrelated code...

my $word = 'test.docx'; # In the actual script I was walking a NetApp 
+filer.
my $settingsXML;

unzip $word => \$settingsXML, Name => 'word/settings.xml'
      or die "unzip failed: $UnzipError\n";
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I used this to detect various problematic settings in a vast archive of documents. IO::Uncompress::Unzip is a core module btw.

Hello! Isn't the contents method you're seeking?

my $zip = Archive::Zip->new();
unless ( $zip->read( "template.ods" ) == AZ_OK ) {
  die 'ZIP read error';
}
my $contents = $zip->contents( "content.xml" );
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