"MEDLARS Drive" Puts NLM's Databases on the Map
But Mystery of Who Made the Suggestion Remains
Unsolved
If you've visited the NIH campus recently, you may have noticed
that new names have been given to some of the roadways.
One that's near and dear to NLM's heart is "MEDLARS Drive," the
appellation recently assigned to the road that juts off Center
Drive, in the direction of the Lister Hill Center (Building 38A) and
curves around in the direction of Building 41. MEDLARS (MEDical
Literature Analysis and Retrieval System) is the computerized system
of databases and databanks offered by the NLM. 
How the naming of MEDLARS Drive came about is still something of
a mystery. According to Tom Cook, former NIH Grounds Maintenance and
Landscaping Chief (1972-91), a suggestion for the new street name
came from NLM employees in the mid-1980s. Sometime thereafter, Cook
proposed to then-Office of Research Services Director Ted Becker
that NIH name all remaining unnamed NIH roads, but that plan was
apparently put in a drawer and forgotten.
That is, until earlier this year, when the proposal to name all
campus roads was revived, approved and implemented, and the section
of road that winds from Center Drive to Building 41 was named,
appropriately, given its proximity to NLM, "MEDLARS Drive."
NEWSLINE has spoken with several key NLM figures, including
former NLM Director Dr. Martin M. Cummings and former Director of
the Office of Computer and Communications Systems Davis McCarn.
Neither man claimed responsibility for the name change or could
guess who made the suggestion.
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