In 1966, the Fifes deposited their extensive fieldwork collections: the Fife American and Fife Mormon Collections, which included acetate discs and reel-to-reel field recordings and sixty-seven bound volumes of field notes/transcriptions and their extensive folklore book collection with the Merrill Library at Utah State University (USU). In 1972, the library established the Fife Library of Western Folklore (later renamed the Fife Folklore Archives) under the administration of the Special Collections Department within the Merrill Library. Along with the creation of a folklore repository, the Fife’s worked with folklorist Williams A. Wilson to create a folklore program at Utah State University.

The Austin E. and Alta S. Fife Folklore Archives is one of a number of leading research facilities that acquire, preserve, and make available the materials in folklore fields that constitute particular areas of institutional focus and strength. The Fife Folklore Archives collects field data, monographs, slides, photographs, periodicals, books, audio recordings, and non-commercial video recordings on the subject of folklore, particularly but not exclusively in the areas of regional folklore (including the Intermountain West, especially Utah and Idaho); folk groups (including ranching culture, Native American culture, Latino culture, and Mormon culture); genres (including belief, folksongs, foodways, proverbs, and legends) and themes (including family, ethnic, and religious folklore). As well, the Archives maintains a basic research and reference collection in folklore.

Professor William A. Wilson was the first director of the Fife Folklore Archives (1978-1985). Together with Barbara [Garrett] Walker, Wilson created an indexing system for the student genre collection that is still used at USU and Brigham Young University (BYU) today. The system, modeled after the Finnish archiving tradition, is genre based. When Wilson left USU for BYU, Barbara [Garrett] Walker was appointed Director of the Fife Folklore Archives (1985-1996). Today, Randy Williams is the Fife Folklore Archives Curator (1996- ).

From the beginning, the folklore repository has worked closely with the those teaching folklore courses at USU, first Austin Fife and later William A. Wilson, to collect and preserve the current trends and vernacular voice of the region. During Wilson’s tenure the University created a folklore program which Wilson directed until 1985. In 1985 Professor Barre Toelken came to USU (from the University of Oregon) to direct the Folklore Program. He continued the folklore collecting legacy that Austin Fife and Wilson began, including genre and focused projects. Soon after, Toelken was joined by folklorists Jay Anderson and Steve Siporin. Professor Siporin had his students collect folklore, using both the focused and genre formats. As well, Barbara [Garrett] Walker, Associate Director of the Folklore Program and Director of the Fife Folklore Archives and Professor Pat Gardner, USU English Department Head, both taught folklore courses and had their students submit genre collections. Professor Jan Roush, USU English Department, also taught folklore classes and had her students submit both genre and focused collections, many dealing with family folklore. In 1995 Randy Williams began to teach folklore courses and her students submitted genre and focused collections. In the fall of 1998, Professor Jeannie Thomas (director of USU’s Folklore Program 2003-) joined the folklore faculty and she has continued the collecting tradition with her students.

Today, the USU Student Genre Collection is growing strong. The format has changed somewhat over the years to reflect the trends in folkloristics. Many of the early submissions had little contextual data, and often limited, if any, informant data. Wilson created a collecting format that included: informant data, contextual data and text (item of folklore). Toelken and Williams added "texture" (stylistic notation) to the format of genre collections, allowing the collector to give "the feel" of the item to potential researchers. As well, in 1998, the students were asked to include release forms with their genre items, following a trend in the folklore field that addresses not only the item but also the performance of the lore.

In 2002, the collection was moved from hundreds of three-ringed binders to archival folders and boxes, giving the collection greater physical stable and making the collection easier to manage and use. In 2003, the collection registers were encoded in HTML and in January 2004 hosted on the Fife Folklore Archives homepage allowing offsite searching.

Over the years the Fife Folklore Archives has had talented colleagues, including: Donna Harris, Karen Krieger, Marilyn Liddle, Tori Rhodes, Amy Rogers, Rebecca Rushing, and Tricia Harrison. As well, many dedicated student employees, interns and graduate assistants have worked in the archives, including: Mark Ashurst-McGee, Maria Braganza, Andrew Brough, Anna-Maria Arnljots, Corey Butcher, Michele Casavant, Lore Erf, Stacy Evans, Robert Gombach, Susan Gross, Nicole Grotepas, Gabrielle Hamilton, Annie Hatch, Sally Haueter, Jenn Hezel, Scott Hunsaker, Katie Kellet, Suzanne Mettauer, Charity Lund, Lynne McNeill, Deanna Moses, Lara Nattrass, Kathrin Nussbaumer, Robin Parent, Erin Peterson, Michael Rigby, Elizabeth Smart, Marci St. Julien, Carmen Summer, Elaine Thatcher, Patrick Vrooman, Michael Ward, Rosanna Walker, Janette Watts, and Randy Williams.

The Fife Folklore Archives includes numerous collections and several special collections. The Fife Folklore Archives receives books and other archival materials from library purchases, contributions, and gifts. And, as stated above, most of the manuscript submissions to the Fife Folklore Archives come from USU folklore students’ fieldwork and collecting projects. The Fife Folklore Archives acts as a laboratory for folklore program. Access points for the Archives' holdings include: Special Collection & Archives search engine, USU Libraries on-line catalog, Fife Folklore Archives Collections, and the Fife’s Slide Collection.

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