Abstract：Big data and academic librariesis it big for something or big for nothingPurpose The paper examined big data and academic libraries and emphasized whether it is big for something or nothingDesignmethodologyapproach A conceptual and review analysis of documents was adopted to determine the concept of big datathe sourcesthe featuresthe relevance to academic librariesspecific case studies from around the world that have made use of big datauses of big data in academic librariesa review of best practices in the use of big data in academic libraries and the challengesFindings The paper reports that although big data is indeed very big in academic libraries because there are evidences of its adoption and best practices in its use in academic libraries across the worldavailable challenges can render it big for nothingResearch limitationsimplications This study is limited in terms of using literature review approach to discuss big data and academic librariesThe study is also limited in terms of focusing academic libraries and not taken other types of libraries into considerationPractical implications The study has created awareness on the part of academic libraries stakeholders including authoritieslibrarians and users on the relevance of big data in academic and how big indeed it is in academic library landscapeThe study also implied future related studies can borrow ideas from the current studieswhich will inform whether an empirical evaluation is possible on the subject matterOriginalityvalue The paper is the original idea by the authorand it is to emphasize the relevance of big data in academic libraries and to prepare academic libraries that have not been tapping the opportunities of big data to get readyRetrieval and IndexingBig data can be used for retrieval and indexing functions in academic libraries to enhance user experience and obtain more in-depth opinionsLibrary AutomationDue to the adoption of big dataacademic libraries may use automation technology to process and analyze these dataThis study discusses the connection between big data and academic librariesAlthough the main focus of research is big datain data analysisdata exploration technology may be used in academic libraries to obtain insights on their use and best practice