We can sort by extent but only in our back-end (staff) interface, not in the public one.  We have a controlled list of units for extent (linear ft., box, volume, item, tube, folder), but then allow the inclusion of additional explanation, so for example: "10 linear ft. (includes four oversize boxes and 13 reels of 35mm film)".

Michele

-----Original Message-----
From: Encoded Archival Description List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jane Stevenson
Sent: Monday, May 13, 2013 9:06 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Ordering or sorting by extent?

Hi Merrilee,

I'm interested to know if you get any answers to this. We tried to work with Extent on our Linked Data project, but in the UK at any rate there is no standard vocab for extent, so it would have required a good deal of work. 

Here's a sample of the extent field content:

1,500+ items
100+ items
1 box
c 170 dissertations
c 80 slide files
approx 10,000 files
1 box and 3 oversized items.
2 filing cabinet drawers
1 box
13 boxes
1 box
1 box
1 box and 15 slides 
930+ items
1 box
2 boxes
1 box
1 box
1 box
1 box
2 files and 50 slides
1 box
1 box
1 box
1 box
1 box
1 box
2 boxes
4 hanging files of slides, 1 volume
5 boxes
5 boxes
17 box files
0.007 cubic metres
One Volume
Small, rectangular piece of lined paper
One piece of paper
One page from a publication
Small, rectangular piece of plain paper
Small, rectangular piece of plain paper
Photograph
Postcard
Compliment slip
A4 size paper
One sheet
One sheet
Small photograph
Small photograph
Thin, rectangular piece of paper
Three A4 size sheets of lined paper
Small press cutting
Compliment slip
Small slip of paper
Three small pieces of lined paper
One sheet, A5 size
Rectangular piece of paper, approximately 20cm in length.
Excerpt from a magazine
Newspaper cutting
Two small slips of paper
Photograph
Small slip of paper
Small slip of paper
Postcard
Thin piece of paper
Thin strip of paper
A slip of paper
Photograph
Photograph
Photograph
A cutting from a publication
Slip of paper
Slip of paper
Slip of paper
Large photograph
Large photograph
Large photograph

We tried the idea of URIs for standard units - a box, a folder, a file, a photograph, but as you can see, quite a few things just don't fit into this!

cheers,
Jane




On 8 May 2013, at 23:09, "Proffitt,Merrilee" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hello! Does anyone out there have a discovery interface that allows user to sort results by extent? Will you share?
>  
> Thank you!
>  
> Merrilee
>  
> Merrilee Proffitt, Senior Program Officer OCLC Research
> 777 Mariners Island Blvd Suite 550
> San Mateo, CA 94404 USA
> +1-650-287-2136
> Merrilee blogs at hangingtogether.org
> Follow me on Twitter @merrileeiam
>