can I just put it in a local directory and just say "use /*path to module*/" at the beginning of my perl script? Would that work?

I believe that if the module installation involves the use of a compiler to build the module, you could run into issues if the .pm file was compiled with a different compiler than what was used to create your instance of Perl. Otherwise, copying the file to the normal locations that Perl looks into or following suggestions from toolic's posting should work.

On the other hand, I believe that it would be better if you would go ahead and install from CPAN (or from repositories if you're using ActiveState's ActivePerl.) If you're having problems with installing from CPAN, marto included a good link with useful information about installing modules from CPAN.