The University of Pittsburgh’s Larry Davis has co-edited and contributed articles to the “Encyclopedia of Social Work.”
As societal conditions and policies have changed dramatically throughout the world in recent years, so has the standard reference publication of social work practitioners.
The completely updated, revised, and expanded 20th edition of the Encyclopedia of Social Work (NASW Press and Oxford University Press) is now available co-edited by Dr. Larry Davis, dean of the School of Social Work, director of the Center on Race and Social Problems at the University of Pittsburgh and the Donald M. Henderson Professor; and Terry Mizrahi, professor and director of the Education Center for Community Organization at the Hunter College School of Social Work. 
LARRY DAVIS
The 2,000-page encyclopedia—in four volumes and accessible online—is designed to be an indispensable resource for social workers, students and policymakers, as well as for anyone interested in social issues. Its 400 articles, written by experts that include six members of the SSW faculty, reflect the changes in the social work profession since the publication of the last edition, in 1995. Most notably, the articles present ideas in a more international and multicultural context.
The volumes provide:
•Greater detail on mental health and drug and alcohol problems; new entries on such critical areas as globalization, immigration and immigration policy, trauma and disaster and displaced persons; and explanations of new areas of practice, including forensic social work and urban social work;
•Thirty-nine entries that explain a major content area, compared to nine in the 19th edition. Examples of new entries include human needs, lifespan, children, disability and criminal justice.
•An expanded 23 entries on various racial and ethnic groups, including Arab-Americans. The latter, for example, highlights concerns relating to stereotypes following the 2001 attack on the United States and explores assumptions about gender relations and the struggles concerning family relations.
•More entries from the international community-regional overviews written by authors from other parts of the world that divide the coverage into eight global sections:
•The addition of 40 social work luminaries to the Biography section, which contains background on 300 key figures in social work history (including Pitt alumni Elizabeth J. Clark, executive director the National Association of Social Workers.
The six SSW faculty members who contributed articles include: Associate professors Valire Carr Copeland (maternal and child health); Catherine Greeno (mental health: overview); Christina Newhill (client violence); Continuing Education Director Tracy Soska (housing); and associate professor John Wallace and Davis (African-Americans: overview).
The 20th edition reflects the breadth and scope of the profession, whose members shape public policy, influence research, and respond to the needs of people all over the world.
The encyclopedia’s first edition, “The Social Work Year Book,” was published in 1929 by the Russell Sage Foundation.