Flaming Hydra Crowdfunds a Plan for Libraries to Own Their E-Books
Flaming Hydra has launched a Kickstarter campaign for The Phoenix Project, an initiative that would let libraries buy and own e-books and lend them to patrons. The campaign went live on November 15, 2026, according to TechCrunch.
The campaign carries the tagline "return of the human internet." Backing the project supports three things: a one-off print magazine celebrating the values and fun of the early internet, a new e-book service for libraries, and a newsletter subscription and archiving program designed for libraries. The e-book service is the core of the effort. Libraries would purchase e-books outright and circulate them through Lenny for Libraries, which the project describes as an open-source "library in a box" system. Open-source software is code that is publicly available for others to inspect, use, and modify.
The project is starting with five new e-books from Flaming Hydra writers. Maria Bustillos is the publication's lead editor.
The problem the project targets is the licensing model that dominates library e-book lending. Under that model, an institution pays for a right of access rather than for a copy it keeps. Bustillos reported in 2020 that a school had to pay $27 per student per year for continued access to copies of The Diary of Anne Frank under library e-book systems, according to the same TechCrunch report. A recurring access fee for a single title differs sharply from the older arrangement in which a library bought a physical volume and kept it on the shelf for as long as it remained usable.
The broader context here is that ownership and licensing are not interchangeable from an institution's perspective. A purchased copy is a fixed asset a library can catalog, lend, and preserve on its own terms. A licensed copy is a right of access that can expire, be repriced, or be withdrawn by the rights holder. Any system that moves digital titles back into the first category has to solve for the functions a physical collection serves: circulation, durability, and long-term access. The reporting does not describe how Lenny for Libraries handles hosting, authentication, or rights management, so those mechanics remain open questions for anyone evaluating the platform.
In my view, the campaign's tagline is a deliberate appeal to readers who associate the early web with open publishing and direct exchange between writers and audiences. Whether a five-title opening catalog and a Kickstarter budget can become a working lending network for libraries is a separate question. The answer will depend on how many institutions adopt the system, how quickly the catalog grows, and whether the newsletter and archiving program becomes a lasting component rather than a campaign perk.
The broader significance for the library sector lies in the control it would return. If an open-source system lets an institution hold its own digital copies and lend them directly, the terms of access stop being set entirely by a distributor's licensing schedule. That shifts who holds the keys, and it is the reason the project's structure may matter more than its magazine.
For now, the project is a crowdfunded proposal. Backers would receive the magazine and help fund the library service, and the e-book collection is a starting set of five titles from Flaming Hydra writers.
