In order to isolate clones that contain regions of interest from a library, the library must first be screened. One method of screening is hybridization. Each transformed host cell of a library will contain only one vector with one insert of DNA. The whole library can be plated onto a filter over media. The filter and colonies are prepared for hybridization and then labeled with a probe. The target DNA- insert of interest- can be identified by detection such as autoradiography because of the hybridization with the probe as seen below.
Another method of screening is with polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Some libraries are stored as pools of clones and screening by PCR is an efficient way to identify pools containing specific clones.