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Collection development policies for university special collections and archives guide archival appraisal, which is the process by which archivists determine the value of an item. Much has been written about appraisal theory, but little is known about archivists' actual appraisal practice and how collection policy guides such practice. The object of this paper is to explore the appraisal practices of archivists by examining collection development policies. As a preliminary examination, this study analyzed the collection development policies of seven Texas tier‐one institutions. The most common component of the policies was a statement on the types of items collected or excluded. The study also found that the language used for these formats varied considerably with no standardization. The policies themselves also varied widely in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]