I think that once you get used to Perl, you will find that complex data structures are far easier in Perl.
The Data::Dumper module (a core module, meaning that all Perl installations have it without further adieu) is very, very helpful.

I think that once you refine your DB application, the unique "id" number will not be so interesting.

$dbh->do ("CREATE INDEX name_idx ON bookplateleaf (name)");
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That will index the bookplateleaf table so that a SELECT on a "name" has performance like a hash table...far faster than a SELECT without being indexed. The unique record id is normally not that interesting. And you do NOT have to keep track of this unique ID when adding records! (see previous post).

Also normally the index, "name_idx" is also not interesting. You will probably search, i.e. SELECT on "names" and the fact that this index exists is transparent to you. But you have to create it in order for the DB to search efficiently on names, but once you do that, the DB "knows" how to search on that column efficiently.