Just a hunch, could you not unshift @INC

How is the trivial difference between this and use lib; supposed to address the OP's problem?

From perldoc lib:

        Saying

           use lib LIST;

       is almost the same as saying

           BEGIN { unshift(@INC, LIST) }

       For each directory in LIST (called $dir here) the lib module also
       checks to see if a directory called $dir/$archname/auto exists.  If so
       the $dir/$archname directory is assumed to be a corresponding architec-
       ture specific directory and is added to @INC in front of $dir.

--Bob Niederman, http://bob-n.com

All code given here is UNTESTED unless otherwise stated.