I don't use tex but I think I recall messing about with it and that I found after eliminating the @defun* issues the @item started showing up (or something like that). Unfortunately I decided that the deeper I got the more likely my lack of tex would start getting in the way so I don't have those patches anymore. So, you may be right, I honestly don't recall at this point, I leave the solution to someone with more familiarity :-).
Anyway, the results were (per the readme)
$ make infoz
makeinfo slib.texi --no-warn --no-split -o
slib-3b4.infoslib.texi:3432: @subsubsection seen before @end deffn
slib.texi:3495: unmatched address@hidden deffn'
./glob.txi:97: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
./xml-parse.txi:113: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
slib.texi:4679: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
./random.txi:37: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
./grapheps.txi:255: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
./grapheps.txi:258: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
./grapheps.txi:437: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
./grapheps.txi:443: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
./solid.txi:549: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
./color.txi:111: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
./color.txi:121: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
./color.txi:142: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
./color.txi:152: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
./color.txi:210: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
./color.txi:220: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
./color.txi:330: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
./color.txi:333: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
./colornam.txi:61: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
./determ.txi:57: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
./determ.txi:60: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
./dbutil.txi:90: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
./phil-spc.txi:44: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
./phil-spc.txi:84: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
./dirs.txi:31: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
./dirs.txi:36: must be after address@hidden' to use address@hidden'
Makefile:186: recipe for target '
slib-3b4.info' failed
make: *** [
slib-3b4.info] Error 1