Databases (ProQuest Research Library, Sociological Abstracts, Business Source Complete, etc.) enable you to become a more strategic researcher in the following ways.
Authority: Most databases have a peer-review/scholarly filter or only contain scholarly materials. Academic authority is almost guaranteed.
Number of results: Usually the number of results in a general or subject-specific database is much more manageable than a web search (Google, Bing).
Relevance: Databases allow you to focus by subject (business, literature, psychology) and/or format (books, articles, book reviews) which usually means more relevant information specific to your research questions/topics and less time wading through irrelevant junk.
Organization & Search Filters: Not only can you use database search features to limit by publication format (book, article, dissertation), language, publication date, publication type (book review, case study, quanitative research), scholarly/peer-review status, but databases also enable narrowing results by subjects and disciplinary areas.
*Adapted from Yale University Library, "The Web vs. Library Databases"
