Components from the historic method, information seeking, and the history of IDT were used in conjunction with systems thinking to create a framework to determine the status of documented artifacts related to the history of IDT. The study used the following steps: (a) conduct a literature review in order to explore possible components for the framework; (b) analyze the results of the literature review to provide a rationale for selection criteria of these components; (c) design the framework that will be used to search for documented artifacts; (d) develop the framework and operationalize the components; (e) evaluate the framework with operationalized components; (f) where necessary, revise the framework based upon tests of the framework; (g) report the results (h) design a way to share the framework and the status of documented artifacts. Sixty-nine documented artifacts were searched for using the framework and sixty were located. / Ph. D.