Issues like this are why I have tried to stay away from FOOD. It seems like the Human community needs a better system. While FOOD serves as a good energy source, it would be nice to also have a system for serious sustenance that has more in the way of safety and accountability. Is there anything out there that is like a Battery? Does the Human community leverage devices like Batteries or Fuel Cells at all? It would be nice if food producers were forced to document more allergens and food attributes like "Is it fresh?", "Does it have E. Coli?", "How hard is this to digest?". These kinds of things sometimes get documented on the WRAPPER, but that does not allow for good tasting/browsing of available food. I hope this does not sound like a flame, I just felt this would be a good thread to air my frustrations. I am still a bit of a Human novice, so take this as an outside perspective on FOOD and the Human community.

Update: (Because it felt mean-spirited.) Yes, the above is unfair. But you are saying that you won't use the library because the modules (books) aren't labeled well enough. Think of CPAN as a layer, just like a traditional library. It is a repository for modules. When you go to a library, you find what you want by either browsing or using some external rating system (best sellers, book reviews, word of mouth, references, ...) It is not the responsibility of the book author to provide all of the metadata needed to make your selection; in fact, you wouldn't trust the author on most attributes anyway. CPAN works the same way, with mailing list discussions, references between modules, cpanforum, etc.

You could go to a library, run through the stacks blindfolded, pick a book at random, and immediately sit down and read it cover-to-cover. But it would be unlikely to change your world or solve the exact problem you're having. Similarly, CPAN is unlikely to be useful if you pick a module completely at random, and using the module name (book title) is obviously a huge improvement but still won't get you where you need to go.

Books do have a better-developed system for doing this sort of thing. Which isn't surprising, considering how many more books there are to sort through (the need is higher), how many people use the mechanisms (the demand is higher), and that most books are produced by publishers trying to make money (the incentive is higher). But CPAN does have constant pressure to evolve in this direction -- the number of CPAN modules is steadily growing, many people are running into the same problems with tracking down what they need, and CPAN authors naturally want their stuff to get used (or they wouldn't have published in the first place.) So please, use the existing mechanisms (better described in other posts here), and complain about specific problems you're having -- preferably by first making an effort to understand why that problem exists, to avoid unproductively complaining about something where there is a very good reason why it hasn't been "fixed".

Hints: Module authors are unpaid. Any additional burden to releasing modules will reduce the number of modules released, and that doesn't just mean reducing the number of low-quality modules. CPAN maintainers are unpaid. CPAN maintainers have heard many people complaining about these issues already, but few willing to undertake the effort to do something about it. CPAN reviewers are unpaid. Usually, writing a review will result in a larger positive impact than complaining about something.