Genomic libraries contain DNA fragments representing an organism's entire genome. They are created through molecular cloning by isolating genomic DNA, fragmenting it, inserting the fragments into vectors, and introducing the vectors into bacteria. This collection of cloned DNA fragments comprises the genomic library and allows researchers to identify and study specific genes of interest. Shotgun sequencing is an alternative approach that involves randomly fragmenting genomic DNA and determining the nucleotide sequence of each fragment to reconstruct the full genome sequence computationally.