I look in my notes and the party has been carrying this thing for about 1 1/2 years of real time and they've never actually had the know how to ID the Herbs...
I have been working with index card (~15x10 cm) for a while and it works perfect. Sure,
I have to provide those index cards and write most of the stuff on them, but they are a great help.
For items I use white index cards, write the name, type and the PCs' knowledge of that item on it. Then I hand it to a player and tell them "whoever has the card possesses that item and can use it - if you lose it, you lost the item." Only once has an item card been lost, the players learned their lesson amazingly fast.
For quests and goals I use yellow index cards - or red ones, should the quest be particular important. Every session I put the "quest cards" in the middle of the table and the players can roam through them, look for hints, write notes on them, and so forth.
The group in my Rolemaster-campaign has currently about a dozen different goals (the group has several goals, each PC has several, too), so with those cards neither the players nor the GM forget what there is left to do.
PS: Sure, that still makes you the "group's scribe," but I recommend to write a document and keep it up to date with all the information about all interesting items the PCs have. The players will never see the document with the full descriptions, but it is important to me to have those notes. I gave each item a code (starting with AA, continuing with AB, AC, you get the point) and name them likewise in that document. There I have the stats and abilities, a longer description and the date when the group acquired that item. When the player want to know more, I tell them to start investigating. And sometimes they do.
