A computer-implemented, knowledge-based process for digitizing a set of documents, which includes using a computer to perform the steps of loading a set of definitions stored in an XML document into a computer-implemented digitization module, the set of definitions including image type and fields; initializing a knowledge base from a knowledge base library having a plurality of knowledge bases categorized by domain, the initialized knowledge base corresponding to the domain of the set of documents and containing information relevant to the domain; providing a document from the set of documents in electronic form to the computer-implemented digitization module, the document having a plurality of records; loading the initialized knowledge base from the knowledge base library into the computer-implemented digitization module; digitizing each record of the document; automatically generating at least one field value using information from the knowledge base; and validating each record of the document against predefined rules and previously digitized results.