Is it possible to sort results in the default sitewide search?

I want to sort the results of a complex boolean search that outputs in search/index.php

I thought I could sort by Dublin Core values using sort_field as I do with items/browse.php, but browse and search use different inputs. Googling the issue turned up very little. Apologies in advance if this is something obvious.

Perhaps I could add a boolean option to items/search.php?

Any ideas?