If the module is a subclass of Exporter (most are), then when you use it, it's import() method gets called, so in the module you would put:

package module;
use vars qw/@ISA/;
@ISA = qw(Exporter);

my $path;

sub import {
    my $self = shift;
    my %args = @_;

    # of course you would do something more useful than
    # just printing it
    print "The path is $args{path}\n";
    # at the very least you probably want to store it
    # somewhere you can get at it later.
    $path = $args{path};
}
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The arguments after use are passed to import directly as a list, the => sign has the same meaning as a comma, but I like it because it makes it more obvious that the /usr/local/etc/software is related to the path.

# ./test.pl
Bio.pm did not return a true value at ./test.pl line 7.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at ./test.pl line 7.
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That's the error I am seeing when I plugin your code in my module. In fact, I commented everything out of my module but just your code, so it should print the path, but I am getting this error instead. What is going wrong?

test.pl is the file calling the module. It contains:

use Bio path => "/path/to/software";
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You need to have a

    1; # that's a one
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at the end of your Perl module. use will fail without it.