PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to introduce a process for developing a metadata element set that will describe e‐government resources in digital collections. The outcome of the process is a metadata schema that reuses as many elements as possible from existing specifications and standards (termed as an e‐government metadata application profile). The use of e‐government metadata is to facilitate the electronic categorization and storage of governmental resources, as well as to enhance users' electronic interactions with the public sector.Design/methodology/approachThe paper extends an initial process presented in the context of the European Standardization Committee CEN/ISSS, proposing four steps for developing the application profile: determine the resources to be described by the metadata, identify the stakeholder groups who will use the metadata, determine the use of metadata for each stakeholder group, and specify the metadata elements corresponding to each use.FindingsThe steps of the proposed process are followed in order to develop an e‐government metadata application profile for a particular digital collection: a one‐stop governmental Web portal that enables discovery and access to e‐government services and documents residing at the Web sites of geographically dispersed public authorities.Originality/valueThe combination of existing metadata schemas, in order to create an e‐government application profile, requires a well‐defined process for identifying the context requirements. This paper presents such a process and reports its engagement in a real case study. It may serve as a roadmap for other interested researchers, managers or implementers of digital collections of e‐government resources.