In reference to the famous quote of “Water, water, everywhere…” from Samuel Taylor’s Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” this talk explores the reality that we are awash in data and yet there are relatively few compelling success stories of libraries directly supporting data intensive research or learning. The talk will describe success stories from both the public and private sector, particularly in relation to the growing use of big data and new forms of machine learning. The talk will then ask what research libraries may need to do in order to be more successful at supporting, even empowering, data intensive research or learning.