Google Book Search Algo? Content w/out Links...

[SEO Montreal]

So G is spending big dough to scan books and make them digital. But since books don't have hyperlinks to each other and only textual references, how does Google go about ranking them?
On a related note, I've found a body of knowledge/content that similarly isn't in a digital form, or if it is, doesn't have a web structure. That is, some of the content may refer to other parts, but it doesn't link to it.
- How much work would it be to make those references links? Would it need to be done manually or can you see a way to automate the process to facilitate/speed things up?
- Since there wouldn't really be an incentive to manipulate rankings with the content I have in mind, how difficult would it be to replicate the PageRank algorithm (i.e. simple link-based analysis?).
- Is replicating it even worthwhile? Would I perhaps be better off simply using google, yahoo, or msn to power the searches?