UA Social Work Professor Awarded for Contributions to Desk Reference

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – A researcher in The University of Alabama’s School of Social Work has been honored for his contributions to what is considered the comprehensive manual to the field of social work.

Dr. Kevin Corcoran, professor of social work at UA, published the third edition of the “Social Workers Desk Reference,” a 5.5-pound, 163-chapter book that took two years to compile and featured nearly 60 new chapters in 2015. The reference, which some schools, including UA and the University of Texas at Austin, use as a textbook, was recently listed to Choice Magazine’s 2016 Outstanding Academic Titles.

Every year in January, Choice publishes a list of Outstanding Academic Titles that were reviewed the previous calendar year. Criteria include importance relative to field, originality, value to undergraduate student and overall excellence in presentation and scholarship, to name a few.

“It’s just a comprehensive guide on what to do … truly a desk-reference,” Corcoran said. “Students and whoever else buys it never lend it out. UT-Austin gives a copy to every student who enrolls in the (social work) program.”

Corcoran became editor of the third edition after the passing of Albert R. Roberts, who authored the first two editions, which began in 2002. Corcoran worked with previous researchers who had authored chapters in the first two editions to update their sections and sought “young people and new things,” like web-based assessments, telemedicine and new interventions, he said.

“It covers every end of the spectrum,” Corcoran said. “The first chapter is social work as a profession, then social work as a student, mental health, children, case management, hospital social work … it provides a social worker the first step to point them in the right direction.”