Archive and Replace: A better way to find current information

Public servants make critical decisions using the information in front of them.

A service provider relies on eligibility guidelines to make a benefits determination. A county election administrator follows procedures shared by the state. In each case, getting it right depends on a simple question: "Is this still the right information?"

Answering that question becomes trickier over time. Policies change. Guidance is updated. But the old version rarely disappears completely. It lives on as an attachment in your inbox, a saved bookmark, or a search result, waiting for someone to find it without realizing something newer exists.

We heard this problem again and again from public servants: it was too easy to find the wrong file, act on outdated guidance, or lose time trying to confirm which version they could trust.

The solution seemed obvious at first: we needed version histories. 

The obvious solution isn’t always the right one

Version history is a common feature in document management systems. Give every file a version number, preserve a record of changes, and let people inspect what came before.

That approach is useful for people actively managing a document. But the more we spoke with public servants, the more we realized it wasn’t actually the best solution to their challenges. Most public servants don’t have the time or desire to deeply scrutinize a document’s version history. Is “Final_UPDATED” more authoritative than “Final_REVISED”? They’re trying to do their jobs and need to know which resource to use right now.

As we came to understand how our partners worked, the real need emerged. Outdated resources had to be retired without erasing the record that they ever existed. At the same time, anyone who encountered an older version should be directed to the latest, correct information.

That insight helped us build a new solution to an old problem.

‍Archive the old. Surface the new.

Deleting a resource removes it entirely from Roundtable, losing all the historical context that might be relevant. So we introduced resource archiving, an alternative to deletion.

An archived resource is removed from the library and Roundtable AI, so it no longer appears as current guidance, while also staying connected to the places where it previously appeared, including old discussions, search results, and analytics. When someone encounters an archived resource, it’s clearly marked as outdated.

And with our new Archive & Replace functionality, administrators can select a resource to replace an archived one, automatically directing anyone who encounters the outdated resource to its replacement. So when new eligibility criteria are published, frontline providers who return to last year’s guidance see that it’s out of date and are directed to the 2026 criteria, helping them to make the right benefits determination. 

No more checking versions or asking “Is this still the right one to use?” Instead of reaching a dead end or unknowingly acting on old information, public servants can be confident that they’re relying on the current, approved resource. 

Built for the actual needs of public servants

Archive & Replace is a small product detail. But it reflects a larger lesson in how we build for government.  

The most familiar solution is not always the one that best fits the work. Versioning was the conventional answer. Listening closely taught us that what public servants really needed was greater confidence that they were using the right information. 

Sometimes the best solution isn’t updating what came before. It’s replacing it with something new that works better.

Learn more about how Roundtable surfaces verified answers instantly, lets partners search across every resource, and turns discussions and meetings into institutional knowledge.

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