Surely this ambiguity arises because of our tendency to abbreviate meanings? The actual proceedings of the symposium or event are done and dusted; but the document is a summary of these proceedings.
As the title of a document of record, ‘Proceedings’ surely is an elision of ‘(XXX of the) Proceedings’ where XXX could be ‘Abstract’, ‘Record’, ‘Summary’ or other similar description, is it not?
It strikes me this is also analogous to our use of other document of record titles, such as Minutes of a meeting. Although the document is a singular item, it is surely more natural speech to refer to this in the plural: “Are these minutes accurate, Ms Sparteye?” Even when the sentence is pointing clearly to just the document rather than its collective contents, we might say: “Are these minutes an accurate record, Ms Sparteye?” This recognises that such a document is a compendium of items so suggests a plural reference, even though we also recognise its status collectively as a single item.
