Proble with Oracle Intermedia with DBI-DBD modules

[Madani, Bardia (B.)]

I have problem using Oracle Intermedia queries with DBI modules.  My code works with 
regular queries (Example Below) and Intermedia works from sqlplus.  But, from the 
script with DBI  I don’t get any results when I convert my queries to Intermedia 
syntax.  Can DBI handle Intermedia syntax?
 
Here is sample Code for each:

Regular query:  [ select i_id,description from items where upper(description) like 
'%BOOK' ; ]
Sample Perl Code (WORKS):
my $term = "%BOOK%";
$query =qq{select i_id,description from items where (upper(description) like ?)
};

$dbh = DBI->connect($DATABASE, $USERNAME, $PASSWD, "Oracle")
       or die "Can't connect to database $DATABASE: $DBI::errstr";

$q = $dbh->prepare($query) or die 'cannot prepare';
$q->execute($term);
while (($id,$description) = $q->fetchrow_array()){
     print "$id => $description \n";
}
$q->finish;
$dbh->disconnect;
----------------------------------------------

Intermedia query: select i_id, description from items where (contains 
(description,'BOOKS') > 0);
Sample Perl Code (Does NOT WORK):
my $term = "BOOK";
my $query = qq{select i_id, description from items where (contains (description,?)
 > 0 )};

$dbh = DBI->connect($DATABASE, $USERNAME, $PASSWD, "Oracle")
       or die "Can't connect to database $DATABASE: $DBI::errstr";

$q = $dbh->prepare($query) or die 'cannot prepare';
$q->execute($term);

while (($id,$description) = $q->fetchrow_array()){
    print "$id => $description \n";
}

$q->finish;
$dbh->disconnect;

I appreciate any Help.

-Bardia