This 1940 volume presents a discussion of the development of civil service and social work. From the foreword: “Discussions with the Civil Service Committee of the New York City Chapter of the American Association of Social Workers resulted in a definite request from that body that the Charity Organization Department of the Foundation attempt to issue a ‘manual’ for the guidance of groups of social workers engaged in studying their local civil service problems, or participating in the processes of selection for social work positions. To undertake this task the Department was fortunate in securing Alice Campbell Klein, whose many years of experience as a worker in the fields of public health and social work, as assistant editor of the Encyclopedia of the Social Services, and later as a staff member of the Joint Vocational Service, had familiarized her with general problems in social work.”

This 1924 book documents a study on child welfare work in the District of Columbia begun in 1918 and revisited in 1922 by the Department of Child-Helping of the Russell Sage Foundation. It aimed to develop a plan of action to improve the conditions of children in foster homes and institutions. Topics include training schools, the juvenile court, and the care of mothers with children.

Hastings H. Hart was director of the Department of Child-Helping of the Russell Sage Foundation.

Your Community was first published in 1935. This later edition, revised by Donald S. Howard, director of the Department of Social Work Administration of the Russell Sage Foundation, to reflect changes in social work and community and civic organizations, examines the idea and scope of the local community and its efforts to conserve the health and safety and promote the education and general welfare of its inhabitants. Topics include housing planning and zoning, medical care, consumer protection, public assistance, worker wages and employment conditions, and recreation. Its followup, Studying Your Community by Roland L. Warren, was published by the Russell Sage Foundation in 1955.

Joanna C. Colcord was director of the Charity Organization Department of the Russell Sage Foundation.

From the preface: “The present work and a simultaneously published companion volume, Theory and Practice of Social Planning, share an overall goal. They would conceptualize and illustrate both specialized planning for social programs or fields and the social aspects of more general planning endeavors. Of particular concern here is the demonstration through use of a number of critical planning concepts often discussed only in the abstract. Author and reader, of course, are concerned with specific policies and with programs in specific fields. The studies presented – they are short monographs rather than true chapters – introduce issues and problems in a variety of high-priority areas. The specific rationale for selection and the manner in which each study is employed are discussed in the first chapter.” Topics include: the anti-poverty war, child delinquency, income security, city renewal, community psychiatry, and the delivery of social services at the local level.

ALFRED J. KAHN was professor of Social Policy and Planning at the Columbia University School of Social Work.

A collaboration with the Russell Sage Foundation and the American Sociological Society, this report assesses sociologists’ contributions to the field of corrections and the study of crime and examines how sociological training and theory can be carried over into practical professional application in the field. Topics include the organizational aspects of the prison system, social-psychological aspects of prison life, probation and parole, and correctional career opportunities for sociologists.

Lloyd E. Ohlin was director of the Center for Education and Research in Corrections, University of Chicago.

This 1942 volume is the fourth edition of Social Work as a Profession, originally published in 1935, detailing the vast growth of social work as a profession from its emergence as a humanitarian effort in the nineteenth century to the rapid changes in professionalization at the end of the 1930s. It includes census data on the number of social workers, as well as additional figures on salaries and educational and training.

Esther Lucile Brown was research associate in the Department of Statistics at the Russell Sage Foundation.

In 1949 the Russell Sage Foundation began a program for the improvement of the synthesis of research in the social sciences in professional practice. This book explores some of the major areas of interest shared by medicine and social science. Particular reference is made to those concepts and formulations that bear directly upon the problems of health and that may instigate collaborative research between medical and social scientists, linking disciplines such as sociology, social psychology, and social anthropology with medical research and practice to better clarify the function of the social and cultural dynamics at work in illness and human adaptation.

Leo W. Simmons was professor of sociology at Yale University. Harold G. Wolff was professor of medicine at Cornell University Medical College.

Readings in Evaluation Research serves both researchers and those teaching evaluation research, applied social research, and social planning by presenting a comprehensive overview on evaluative research. The general papers address such issues as the nature of the evaluation task, the role of evaluative research in programs of directed change, the organizational context in which evaluative research is conducted, and the appropriate methodological strategies. The case materials include treatment of problems in the establishment of the evaluative research role and reports of findings of completed research studies.

Contributors: A. Stephen Stephan, Edward A. Suchman, Michael Scriven, Michael P. Brooks, Albert Cherns, Herbert C. Schulberg, Frank Baker, Martin Trow, Peter H. Rossi, Chris Argyris, Anthony Downs, Hyman Rodman, Ralph Kolodny, Carol H. Weiss, Floyd Mann, Rensis Likert, B.G. Greenberg, John Mann, Charles R. Wright, Paul Lerman, Donald T. Campbell, Howard E. Freeman, Clarence C. Sherwood, Peter H. Rossi, James S. Coleman, Robert S. Weiss, Martin Rein, Francis G. Caro, F. Stuart Chapin, Walter B. Miller, Walter Grove, John E. Lubach, James K. Skipper Jr., Robert C. Leonard, Ronald Freedman, Laura Pan Lu, H.C. Chen, L.P. Chow, Victor Cicarelli, and John W. Evans.

Francis G. Caro was associate professor of social research in the Florence Heller School for Advanced Studies in Social Welfare at Brandeis University.

This study deals with philanthropic foundations: their types, organization, boards of trustees, finances, professional staff, methods of operation, grant programs, areas of interest, reporting and publicity, and legal problems. It is based on extensive interviews, correspondence, questionnaires, examination of the literature in the field, and its author’s long experience with the Russell Sage Foundation and as consultant and adviser to other foundations and philanthropic organizations. It is designed to assistant foundations and to serve as an aid to prospective donors and their advisers in setting up such institutions.

F. Emerson Andrews was director of publications at the Russell Sage Foundation.