the database methods return rows with each column value tagged by it's column name, something I'm still to find in the DBI module.

Have you tried fetchrow_hashref

% pelrdoc DBI
[snip]
 `fetchrow_hashref'
            $hash_ref = $sth->fetchrow_hashref;
            $hash_ref = $sth->fetchrow_hashref($name);

           An alternative to `fetchrow_arrayref'. Fetches the
           next row of data and returns it as a reference to a
           hash containing field name and field value pairs.
           Null fields are returned as `undef' values in the
           hash.

           If there are no more rows or if an error occurs, then
           `fetchrow_hashref' returns an `undef'. You should
           check `$sth-'>`err' afterwards (or use the
           `RaiseError' attribute) to discover if the `undef'
           returned was due to an error.

           The optional `$name' parameter specifies the name of
           the statement handle attribute. For historical reasons
           it defaults to "`NAME'", however using either
           "`NAME_lc'" or "`NAME_uc'" is recomended for
           portability.

           The keys of the hash are the same names returned by
           `$sth-'>`{$name}'. If more than one field has the same
           name, there will only be one entry in the returned
           hash for those fields.

           Because of the extra work `fetchrow_hashref' and Perl
           have to perform, it is not as efficient as
           `fetchrow_arrayref' or `fetchrow_array'.

           Currently, a new hash reference is returned for each
           row.  This will change in the future to return the
           same hash ref each time, so don't rely on the current
           behaviour.
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-Blake