Answered Dec 11, 2017
It depends on what you mean by “selection”.
Some other commentators are talking about selection to distinguish different species. This is often done by plating your culture onto “selective media” containing ingredients which favour the growth of certain bacteria but not others. Also, there is “differential media” which may turn different colours depending on what is growing.
However, you mention using antibiotic resistance for selection.
That sounds like you are transforming plasmid vectors into the bacteria, and want to select only those where this was successful.
In that situation, the plasmid vector may contain the AmpR gene to resist ampicillin. So, bacteria that were successfully transformed (now have the plasmid) can survive on an ampicillin plate, while everybody else dies. (There are variations using other antibiotics).
A more specific method is “blue-white screening”. This is especially useful if you have spliced a new insert sequence into the plasmid.
The end result will be colour-coded colonies, so you can see which ones have the recombinant plasmid (with your insert).
The catch is that, this screening must be done only after you have already used antibiotic selection (otherwise you would be overloaded with false-positive white colonies).
Some people are working on totally antibiotic-free alternatives, but they are new, complicated, and probably expensive.
Introduction to Blue-White Screening
Plasmids 101: Blue-white Screening
5 Ways To Screen Recombinant Clones
New Generation of Plasmid Backbones Devoid of Antibiotic Resistance Marker for Gene Therapy Trials
Antibiotic-Free Selection in Biotherapeutics: Now and Forever