The advantage of using use lib is that it also adds the directory specific to the architecture.

Quick-and-very-dirty workarounds:

• Make a dummy "pragma" module which simply lists the include directories you want:

     # In myInc.pm, located in standard perl lib directory
     package myInc;
     use lib /path/to/my/special/lib;
     1;
  [download]

  This only shifts the problem, but you have the advantage of a simpler inclusion and, what's better, the fact that you don't have to change anything in your scripts, only in the local myInc package:

     # ... in your script
     use myInc;
     use GD; # or whatever in your local lib
     # ...
  [download]

• given the fact that you're always using strict (aren't you?!?), you could put the use lib directly in strict.pm, but I've never suggested you to do that :)

The first solution seems the one to go if you want to give these headless advices a try. I only hope merlyn's hammer won't be too heavy on me!

Update: fixed 8-PM typo, thanks to eric256 for signaling!