Beginner Q How to load externally defined function

I'm just barely beginning... but I have tried to research this... As per instructions in the class I'm taking I set up several php library folders outside of public_html, one of which is ../phplib/utilities/ and inside that folder I've put a file scandir.php containing the function called "scandir()" How do I call that function? (I just have no clue, sorry!) should I set it in my php.ini? the class assumes we are running on their unix apache server I've set up these directory shortcuts: define ('LIBDIR', 'C:/_Paul/web/phplib'); define ('UTIL_DIR', LIBDIR . '/utilities'); the script is running under: C:\_Paul\web\public_html The class assumes we are running on their unix apache server but I'm running this on my own machine under win2k with an apache server I set up. thanks! echo (scandir()) Fatal error: Call to undefined function: scandir() in C:\_Paul\web\phplib\screen\home.php on line 8 echo (../phplib/utilities/scandir()) Parse error: parse error, unexpected '.' in C:\_Paul\web\phplib\screen\home.php on line 8 etc...